Quotes from Helena Bonham Carter

Mothers are the heart of any household. I try to spend as much time with my children as I possibly can while also fulfilling my professional duties. It is tricky, but I think I manage it.

No, I can never rely on Tim to make me pretty.

Tim also has enough confidence so that it always looks like a Tim Burton film, but it really is collaborative. You're allowed to do it your way but of course he's always going to choose his way.

J.K. Rowling said Bellatrix's role was going to be significant in the last one, when I showed some reluctance in playing a tiny bit part. Up front, they said, 'You're very significant in the last one.' But significant could mean a lot of things. That could just mean a significant plot point. Doesn't necessarily equal big part.

I've never had white teeth. To be honest, I've never been told to do any of those horrible things - get your teeth whitened or your nose straightened.

I liked pretending to be other people: I could reinvent myself, reinvent my own reality.

I love changing what I look like because I always feel super strange whenever I do watch something that I'm in.

Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?

Famous people come up to me, but I don't know who they are because my sight is so bad. It's always at the pool of the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills when I don't have my lenses in and my glasses are in my room.

It took me so many years to move out. I'm definitely a bit of a Peter Pan, reluctant to grow up. It all seemed really nice at home-why change it? Part of me would prefer not to have any responsibility whatsoever.

I love witches and magic and dress-up and make-believe.

I love movies where people see the world from a different angle.

Who wants to be normal when you can be unique?

Because I sleep with him he asked me to audition, you know?

I enjoy those small chats you have when people come up and talk to you about your work. It only involves a few seconds of effort to be nice to those people, and I am very grateful for the kind words that people have taken the trouble to express to me in person.

I hate this image of me as a prim Edwardian. I want to shock everyone.

When you write for very young children what they want is something familiar and safe and stereotyped.

I'm not dead and I don't have blue hair but some people say there are similarities. It is usually intolerable to watch myself onscreen but this time it's fine. I think it's beautiful and a real work of art.

What I loved about playing the corpse is that obviously somebody else got to do the physical part. It appeals to the part of me that likes playing character parts and getting the chance to get away from my own physicality.

The animators are absolutely extraordinary. It's mind-boggling.

I think smells, like sounds, can be so much immediately affecting.

You can't ever put your self-definition in the hands of somebody who meets you for 15 minutes.

I personally never got the gist of Facebook and Twitter.

I loved doing all those costume dramas. I didn't think, 'Ooh I've got to avoid being typecast' - you can't ever be dictated to by what other people think. I just do things because I fancy the parts and the directors.