My first professional audition was for a radio play in Manchester. That was the first audition that I got. It was my first paid job, which I think was, like, £150, and I thought it was megabucks."

In 'The White Princess,' the women are leading the story, and they're holding everything together. It's definitely a world of women's empowerment.

I'm constantly learning with each new job, especially about people, which is important for playing characters.

I'd done acting at a local drama school on Saturdays. I just enjoyed it. It never entered my mind I could possibly do it for a career.

You have to be a lover of books without expecting more of them than they give - a little pleasure, a little insight, a moment of escape, a deepening of your own humanity. Not much else.

I had been overexposed in a particular way because my marriage to an extremely successful older man meant I was involved in his public life as well as my own.

Odd, the years it took to learn one simple fact: that the prize just ahead, the next job, publication, love affair, marriage always seemed to hold the key to satisfaction but never, in the longer run, sufficed.

I am happier when I love than when I am loved. I adore my husband, my son, my grandchildren, my mother, my dog, and frankly, I don't know if they even like me. But who cares? Loving them is my joy.