Quotes from Anne Reid

I'm terribly happy at the moment - someone up there must be looking out for me.

I never thought of getting married again. I'm quite difficult to live with, I think.

Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company - what a wonderful woman.

I did go to public school, but that's only because my parents were abroad. As a matter of fact, I think that's helped my work. I can go from Victoria Wood's 'Dinnerladies' to playing Barbara Cartland, from 'Coronation Street' to playing Celia in Last 'Tango'.

You never know what life is going to throw at you, really, do you?

I've a very sweet tooth. Wish I didn't.

Inner talent gives you that ease. It's not a remarkable thing - just a knack that gives you a very nice life.

My first big disappointment is always, why don't I look like Julie Christie? Then I realise I don't look remotely like Julie Christie, and that's always a great sadness to me. Because I used to think I might have done, at one time. And I'm too fat. And I'm too old. You always see your faults, you see.

I don't think I've ever been lonely in my entire life. I love to shut my front door and be on my own.

I would have liked Sir Laurence Olivier to ask me to go to the Old Vic and let me play all the roles Judi Dench got.

I'm afraid sometimes I cram too much into my schedule. And I'm not very domesticated. I'm absolutely hopeless in the kitchen.

If someone, a director, tries to tell me the way to do something, I'm not good at adapting. I need time to go away and think about things.

Jasmine - it brings back memories of India with my parents.

I'm not really emotionally dependant on anybody except my son, my daughter-in-law, and my grandchildren. But a partner... I haven't felt like that for so many years, I don't really remember what it was like.

I used to lie in bed and imagine I was performing at the Albert Hall, not that I'd ever been there. I took lessons with a German teacher when I was quite young. But it turned out I had a very high soprano voice, which I didn't like at all.

My favourite time of year is two weeks before Christmas when everybody's up for it - you're having lunches with people, drinking Cosmopolitans, and getting ready for something exciting!

My teacher at RADA said I was going to have trouble when I left because I wasn't an obvious juvenile lead, although I could do both comedy and drama. But I understood enough to know that my career was going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

I have notebooks all over the place. I write little stories for my cabaret.

The British tend to be uptight; they shy away from being tactile.

I get very spiky if people treat me like an old lady.

What I really want is an Oscar.

I've accepted stuff even if it's a few lines, because I think it's better to be seen.

Get an Alan Bennett script; then everybody will want to do it, no matter how big they are.

I think people can't believe I can still walk and talk and get on the stage without assistance.