Quotes from Maxine Peake

After my mum and dad got divorced, I was entitled to free school dinners, but my mum said, 'Under no circumstances,' because she was proud.

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, when you watch yourself on the screen, you are always you.

If I were to appear in a programme like 'Sex and the City,' I'm sure I'd be cast as the downtrodden one staying at home and having seven children while the others jet-setted around the world.

I wasn't an obvious actress in any sense of the word.

When I'm going to work, I often stop and wonder how I've got here. I don't mean literally, but just thinking back to when I first had the idea of being an actress, it seemed so unreal, so unlikely. People like me just didn't become actresses. Every new job I get comes as shock. It's almost as if I'm waiting to be found out.

I find these dramas fascinating - it's a world that many of us fortunately don't dip into. The legal system is all around us, but the majority of us don't have to go into a court, so it's a way into another world that is unusual.

I'm unusual in that I've worked more as I've got older.

I remember when New Labour got in. I was at Salford Tech studying drama, and everyone was jumping up and down, and I was so upset, I went to a phone box and called my granddad.

When I graduated, I was my biggest ever: 15 stone, with a boyfriend - my first - of just 11 stone. I was 23 years old. It wasn't just affecting my career: it was a health issue as well.

At drama school, I was told, 'Lay off the chips, or you'll never play Juliet.' Sometimes, in the stock room of the set of 'Dinnerladies,' I'd put away three or four Mars bars while waiting for a scene. Then, at 24, I lost five stone.

I do, in a strange way, care deeply what people think.

I joined the Communist Party when I was 18. When I was 10, there was the miners' strike, and the Cold War was going on; it was quite a potent time to get involved in politics. I got involved through my grandfather, who was a member.

People think I'm clever, which is hilarious. I'm like, 'When did this happen? People used to think I couldn't string a sentence together.'

When I was growing up, because I was a bit overweight and boyish, I thought I wasn't attractive to the opposite sex, but I have since met lads from my school who said I just seemed unapproachable.

I was told, 'Your career's made by what you don't do,' and that always stuck with me. I drive my agent mad!

I think people expect me to dress a bit like Veronica from 'Shameless,' in vest tops and denim skirts.

You don't want to bash viewers over the head with a blunt message or lecture them - they'd soon get bored with that.

I have recurring dreams about losing my temper, which become quite violent. I dread to think what that says about me.

What is male and what is female? I don't always feel female.