Quotes from Julian Fellowes

If we don't respect the past, we'll find it harder to build a future.

One of the great injustices in fiction is that on the whole people with romantic yearnings have romantic faces. But in real life it's not always like that.

I think the reason why people love 'Downton Abbey' is because all the characters are given the same weight. Some are nice, some are not, but it has nothing to do with class or oppressors versus the oppressed.

For most directors, the scriptwriter is about as welcome on set as a member of the Taliban.

There isn't much point in the whole 'celebrity' nonsense unless one is prepared to go out on a limb and, one hopes, speak up for some under-represented section of the community.

My childhood was a happy one, spent in a tall house in South Kensington and later in East Sussex, but my early and mid teens were less successful.

I have fits of melancholia when I watch the news, but we all do, don't we?

Plenty of friendships are sustainable through dinners and lunches, but will not stand a week away. So be careful with whom you go on holiday.

Success means your thoughts are worthy of everyones consideration.

To me, all success is a delightful surprise, since one can absolutely never predict it.

The business of life is learning that you can't lay down the terms.

Life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.

We are usually undone by our lack of understanding of ourselves.

We live a life that is often spent in crowds - parties, festivals and first nights - so it's nice to avoid them.

Today, people often make the American mistake of confusing acquaintances with friends. The former are there to share life's pleasures; only the latter should be invited to share one's problems.

Nothing is harder to dramatize than happiness.

When you make your first film, there is a hell of a lot to think about, and you've got to have a gut understanding of your material.

To be honest, when you're running a series and you have an open end, you don't want to limit yourself too much with the choices you've got for a particular character.

I think American television changed world television in its reinvention of the series.

My parents came from different backgrounds. My father's was grander than my mother's, so my mother had... to put up with the disapproval of my father's relations.

The great houses of Britain have, for centuries, been the guardians of much of our history, not just of the families who built and lived in them, but of the people who worked there, of the local area, of all of us.

I think America has dealt with - I mean, this is simplistic, and of course I don't live in America - but the impression I get is that there is not a kind of obligation to dislike those who are better off or be frightened of those who are worse off.

The English country house is certainly an icon of British culture.

In the end, drama is successful if you care about the people.