Sally Hawkins

Of course you want to be good and you want to do the best you can, but I am inspired by great writing. If there's something about the script, that's what I go for, although I know that that doesn't always translate because sometimes it's about the vision of the director.

You only do good work when you're taking risks and pushing yourself.

I do worry about young people in the business who have experienced a lot of success and are punted around doing those manic publicity trails, when you don't really know who you are yet.

I love acting but I also love writing, especially comedy.

Comedy was why I got into acting the first place. Peter Sellers was a huge influence on my wanting to act. I grew up with him and found him hysterical. The Pink Panther films were an inspiration, from my earliest childhood days, when I was watching them with my brother and my dad.

People are funny, and in the most tragic situations, when comedy erupts from nowhere, it can turn on its head within the space of a second or a minute. You're laughing one minute and you're crying the next and that's just life for me, and that is what people are like.

I'm not very well known. However, the more well known you get, the more people are going to have expectations of you. Although that's great, it also imposes certain pressures.

I never come away from a film thinking I nailed it.

My parents have a strong work ethic, but their attitude to life, their philosophy, is: 'whatever makes you happy.'

The one thing that's going to get you through this business is having strong roots, being grounded and knowing what is true.

Being in nature is very important to me. I'm not a glamour puss.

Sometimes you go into a film and you have no time to prepare and have to compress the details into a few days and then rely on the instinct and what happens when you're in a scene with other actors and that chemistry or not.