Most of the soap operas always use the Christmas special to kill huge quantities of their characters. So they have trams coming off their rails, or cars slamming into each other or burning buildings. It's a general clean-out.

The business of life is learning that you can't lay down the terms.

When you make your first film, there is a hell of a lot to think about, and you've got to have a gut understanding of your material.

I like people who don't accept boundaries. Like Florence Nightingale. And Napoleon or Louis XIV, though I'm not sure how much I'd have liked to meet them. I admire people who aren't circumscribed by circumstance.

There must be such a thing as a child with average ability, but you can't find a parent who will admit that it is his child.

When I look at female characters, I want to recognize myself in them: my trials, my tribulations as a mother, as a lover, as a daughter.

Even then, our family was extraordinary, with ten kids.

I have cared for loved ones nearly all my life, so when I look in the mirror, I see a caregiver looking back at me. It began when I was 12 years old and my father became ill. Taking care of him took a toll on our entire family, my mother most of all.