Quotes from Dervla Kirwan

I was always quite mature as a child and as I get older I'm regressing.

I used to be nervous about not working and so would work for the sake of it.

I am all for high art but I owe it to myself to be clever about it and do commercial things too.

I never read the good press and never read the bad press. If you believe the good press you're finished. If you believe the bad press, you won't be able to continue.

A lot of first-time mothers worry about how they will cope. But I'm more patient than I thought I would be even though there are good days and bad days.

I was a waitress at a really rundown Italian restaurant in Dublin, for about a week, at 16. I thought it was going to be romantic - overhearing affairs and watching first-time couples all loved up. But instead I was just running about constantly.

I feel better now at 38 then I did when I was 17. But then, when I was 17 I did have the attitude of a 40 year-old.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my career but the biggest mistake I've made is to turn down work.

Growing up, I wanted blond hair.

My kids will never need a bodyguard because they'll have me.

A lot of actresses say they are 24 when they are 34 but I find that ridiculous. I wish we didn't succumb to the youth-is-all ideology in this industry, because there is a huge audience out there who want to relate to characters of their own age played by actors of their own age.

David Attenborough's 'Life' series is phenomenal. He's a wonderful modern soothsayer.

True Dare Kiss' is a gothic drama about a highly dysfunctional Mancunian family who, after 20 years, reconvene for the funeral of their father. I wanted to play Phil because I really liked the character, and there is an element of mystery about her - which I can't reveal.

My parents have a brilliant ear for languages and mimicry and accents, which I think I've inherited - that I can listen to things and pick them up.

As a chind in Dublin, I can remember having my plate piled high with four or five vegetables - and I'm convinced to this day that my mother's home cooking helped to ward off illness.

Yeah, I talk to everyone. I think that's the secret, you know. Keep it friendly, keep it warm. People just want to connect, don't they, at the end of the day?

As long as you're chasing something, that keeps you alive, right?

It's a collective experience when you're making TV. You think of all the people who work hard to make this extraordinary and you just hope that it works well.

I take the kids horse riding every weekend at Quob Stables - the people there are lovely.

When growing up, there were never any conversations about the past, because if you don't ask the questions, you never get the answers.

It makes a lot of people cringe, the idea of being a team player.

I was pregnant with my first child and so gloriously happy. I felt fecund and powerful.

I can be a totally different person from one day to the next, so it is difficult for me to stay in one role over a prolonged period.

There is a wealth of fabulous actresses in England.