Quotes from Kristin Scott Thomas

I've realised that I am who I am and that is it. Like it or lump it. I'm not around to please anyone any more, and it's a huge relief.

The Cannes film festival is about big-budget films but also remarkable films made in different political regimes by film-makers with little resources.

Movies make you immortal and ageless.

If you're feeling insecure and you need to feel special, the best place to go is somewhere foreign where people treat you as special because you're different.

I can't move back to England. My home is in France now. I'd love to but I can't. My family's all there now.

Making films can be absolutely fantastic, but it can also be incredibly dull. You spend the whole day sitting by yourself in your trailer and then you get called to deliver one sentence - then you're told to come back and do it again at 5:30 the following morning.

I can't get into all that physical stuff of having to have flawless skin... Sometimes you see people and it looks like someone's got an eraser and made their face a little blurry - their traits seem to go out of focus.

I think I'm inspired mostly by other artists that aren't actors, like writers or singers or artists, for being so brave.

We all come in different shapes and sizes, and that's fine by me.

I'd love to do some comedy. Particularly French comedy, which I know sounds like a contradiction in terms.

Now, playing a love interest can be really thrilling, if you're working opposite thrilling people.

Everyone loves to hate a spin doctor.

I love shooting French films because I don't have to stick with being sophisticated or stuck-up.

I still absolutely love 'The Sound of Music' and anything with Julie Andrews in it.

Buy, buy, buy, buy! They want to grab you and trap you and turn you into little Elizabeth Hurleys.

I mean, if you're being directed very precisely by somebody who has admiration and who's really smart, it's great. If you're being told what to do by a nincompoop - and luckily that hasn't happened very often - it can be very frustrating.

Having a career is a bit like navigating an Atlantic crossing - you have to make sure everything is keeping and is balanced.

'The English Patient' was a huge turning point in my career and my life; it became this huge thing. But the whole Oscar build-up got completely out of control; I spent more time talking about that film than I spent making it!

I'm not used to being asked what I want to talk about. That's why I'm an actress. Get told what to do, stand on the mark, say your words, wear this, look this way, look that way.

When I speak English, I've been told, I have this patrician way of speaking that's very irritating. It's the whole class thing.

I'm not one of those famous people flying round the world emoting over every catastrophe. I'm too feeble.

I have never met a woman who works who doesn't feel guilty. I mean we all deny it like crazy but deep down there is always that voice saying you should be at home.

Often, the roles I'm offered in England are melancholic women who are filled with regret for the past, regret for their fading beauty.

There's something incredibly sexy about sand and sweat and dunes photographed like women's backs.