Quotes from Lesley Sharp

We can't all have faces like Elizabeth Taylor or Angelina Jolie.

I'm an actress, not a politician. And my private life is my private life.

At times I am very self-critical and disappointed with my appearance, and there are other times I think, 'How lucky I am to be alive.'

I feel pretty disillusioned about the politics and politicians in this country - and angry.

My best feature is the color of my eyes, but I don't know where that comes from.

I don't dislike anything, but I am definitely finding the ageing process 'interesting' and not wholly comfortable.

I'm certainly old enough to be a grandmother. I think it's interesting that it should be an issue, that being seen as a grandmother should be terrifying to women.

What actors are involved in is a similar sort of psychological forensic examination of the characters they're playing. You try to have an idea about why somebody does what they do and you try not to be in judgmental about it. That is what psychologists and psychotherapists aim to do with their patients.

With 'Before We Die,' the psychology of the characters and their relationships with one another was key.

Really complicated, interesting women at the centre of very, very well written dramas - and that's what floats my boat.

If you're adopted, you can't help but feel, somehow or other, deep, deep, deep down inside that you don't belong. It makes you feel like you've got a question mark inside you.

When I was in my 20s, I think there was a lot of really arcane male behaviour that wasn't even questioned.

With adoption, there is a whole range of experiences, and a lot of it goes under the radar. There is too much icky stuff about it - all this stuff about people reunited, a sickly sentimentality about blood lines. For me, at least, life is much more ambiguous than that.

Sometimes I feel my glass is a bit half empty and I am a bit Eeyore-ish.

If you start doing a television or a film job and you suddenly think it's a mistake - the director's horrible or the people you work with aren't very kind, or whatever - it's much easier to deal with because it's in bite-sized chunks. You do it, you go home.

Sometimes I feel very bullish about it - this is the age that I am, this is the way that I look, there's nothing I can do about it and I'm grateful that I've lived this long.

I do try to think if I can afford not to do something I don't want to do, and if I can, then I don't do it, that's for sure. But the consequence of that is that you can be unemployed, it can make you feel ghastly, because you wonder if you will ever work again.

What was fantastic about 'Scott and Bailey' was the opportunity to engage with female characters that were absolutely committed to their working life but also had to cope with all of the outside stress and pressure of their real lives.

Often the people who seem to be the ones who hold themselves together very well in the workplace are not as successful at home.

I don't like to generalize about men, but I do feel there's still a long way to go if we want a society that is civilized, kind and tolerant, not biased, bigoted, homophobic or racist.

We're 50 per cent of the population so it's appropriate we're reflected everywhere as people who take part in society in a really proactive way - that women aren't just reactive, they're out there doing stuff.

If you get hung up on the history of a part then you're on a hiding to nothing.

If you get involved with something on stage that makes you feel dreadful, that's a nightmare because you have to repeat it every night.

I want to stay open. I don't want to shut down the possibility of new ideas, new ways of seeing the world.