Quotes from Judi Dench

I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.

And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.

Seriously, though, I think I never ceased to be grateful of the fact that I am able to do a job that I really love - I never got over that.

I don't think that care homes are all rotten old places that ought to be shut down.

Sometimes nudity is gratuitous. We just live in a society where everything goes.

The theater is the thing I love doing most.

When we are together, there is nothing we cannot achieve', which is something Michael used to say.

I don't really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy.

Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.

I trained as a designer, so I'm always terribly keen about what I'm going to look like.

I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.

I was in Yorkshire. We were a family of five and I used to be sent sometimes to get the rations for the week and I was easily able to carry them back. It was like one egg and a tiny bit of tea.

My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.

I can't read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes.

Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.

The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.

Actually, what I miss are people corpsing on stage.

I get sillier as I get older, so I don't know what wisdom means. I can only pass on something that I've been acquainted with and let whomever it is pick the bones out of it

I have no control over a film. I don't know what will be left on the cutting floor.

It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M. I didn't realize at the time that it would be so noticed.

I'm very conscious that I'm in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it - how incredibly lucky.

There's nothing good about being my age.

People think you know beforehand when you win an Oscar - I can assure you you don't.

The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?