Glenda Jackson

I've always been ambitious to be very good at what I do.

I used to believe that anything was better than nothing. Now I know that sometimes nothing is better.

I look forward to growing old and wise and audacious.

I studiously avoid any academic dissections of the play and any kind of previous experience of playing. For me, it's all in the play.

When I have to cry, I think about my love life. When I have to laugh, I think about my love life.

I've always said the first duty of life is to live it, and I do believe that. And we delude ourselves if we think it's not going to end. How we individually meet that, I think, is entirely individual.

I turn my feet in when I'm sitting down. I tend to put my arms across me when I'm sat thinking; I bend forwards. Loads of protective curves.

My life was transformed by the Labour government of 1945. It was transformative for millions of people like me, you know - education, the health service. It was proof that politics can make life better for people; that a social dream can become a social reality by the power of government.

It would be nice if education was free to everyone who wanted it, but that's not the world we live in.

Rock Hudson. He was an absolute human being. Charming, funny, real.

I was blessed by my parents and my antecedents by a very strong work ethic. I mean, being a Member of Parliament is 24/7, just as much as when you're actually doing a play. It's not quite 24/7, but it's the work that counts.

It always amazed me - it still does - that people offer me work. And when the theater was my basic bread and butter, every time a show finished, I was convinced I would never work again.