Quotes from Lesley Manville

I love playing women at the far ends of the social scale. I've done it all my life; that's where my ability lies.

I had this exceptional classical music voice. If I'd followed a true path for my talent, I would have ended up being an opera singer.

People say, 'I know you, don't I?' And they expect me to say I know them from their daughter's school or something - they can't place me. And I love that. Long may it last.

I do get clocked in the street. People say, 'You're an actress, aren't you?' But they don't know my name. Nine times out of 10, they don't know what I've been in.

In 1990, I was in 'The Three Sisters' at the Royal Court and won the Clarence Derwent award for my supporting role as Natasha - the prize was £100. I could have paid the gas bill, but I ended up buying a porcelain and silver Bavarian coffee set in an antiques shop in Penzance.

The thing is this: I've got an amazing career in England that couldn't possibly get much better. I do the best theater around, I work at the National Theater, the Old Vic - which I'm sure you've heard of because it's the one Kevin Spacey runs - and I play the most amazing roles and work with the most amazing directors.

The thing is, when you have a child with someone, like it or not, you're going to have to have a continuing relationship with them.

My mother always cooked, every day, proper food. We didn't have fast food. It was probably pretty much meat and two veg, but as time went on and new things came into the culture, she embraced all of that. I grew up with mealtimes and sitting around the table with proper cooking and eating.

It gets easier as you get older because life deals its particular hand, and our experiences get deeper, richer, more profound. When I gave birth to my son, something happened. It is a huge thing for a woman: a whole set of emotions you never had before arrives, and a love you never had before in your life is now on tap.

When I gave birth to my son, something happened. It is a huge thing for a woman: a whole set of emotions you never had before arrives, and a love you never had before in your life is now on tap.

In my work, I want to convince people that I'm that character. If they know everything about Lesley Manville - private life, all of that stuff - it doesn't help. So the kind of anonymity I enjoy is key.

I like to personalise my dressing room, have a cover for the bed and, if it is a long run, a few cushions and a teapot - a little pot for one.

When I make films, I work with Mike Leigh, who's the most prolific director in England.

I'm fascinated by food. Food is love, isn't it?

Oh, there's so much ego with men; in their head, they can't possibly think about Tesco's when they are doing Othello. Er, why not? They want to think that they are such geniuses they can't muddy their day with domesticity, and I've got no truck with it whatsoever.

With learning lines, before I had Alfie, I'd put it off and think, 'Oh, I'll just have a glass of wine and then do it later,' but when you've finally got a child to bed and you know you've only got an hour, then you achieve so much.

Corinne Bailey Rae I listen to a lot, and I'll hear Desert Island Discs and quickly write down the name of a song, and it will open up a new area of music for me. I discovered an Argentinian guitarist, Jose Luis Bieito, on Classic FM.

I've reached a point in England where you can't go much further; I would love to come to America and work with some of the interesting directors here.

I'm quite chameleon in my work - not normally looking much like I do in real life.

I think that distributors and marketing companies realise that there are a huge number of women over 40 who want to go the cinema and see films about themselves. Women of my age don't want to be force-fed with stuff about 25-year-olds.

I do absolutely want to be around as long as possible. I tell my son: 'You do realise, I am going to live to 100.'

A friend of mine rang the box office to collect a ticket I'd reserved for her, and the girl said, 'Who's Lesley Manville?'

You've got to take responsibility for your own actions. We all know people who reach rock bottom. However much that they're told that what they're doing is harming their own life or whatever, you cannot make someone do it unless that person reaches the point where they know that they have to deal with it themselves.

I hate that thing that if you are over 45, and you're going to be on telly or make films, you have to do all this stupid stuff to your face. I would no more let someone stick a needle in my forehead than fly to the moon.