Quotes from Elizabeth McGovern

I had reconciled myself to being happily out to pasture, a bit.

It's peaceful for people to know how their lives are going to be, pretty much.

I turned down the opportunity to be in some films that went on to be blockbusters.

Hollywood never suited me, I didn't ever feel comfortable with it, it took me a couple of years but I found where I was always meant to be... Chiswick!

England as a culture has endured so much more than America has as a culture, so it's given them a different perspective.

I've found acting on stage much more challenging than on screen.

Honestly, I am always shocked when I see myself in the mirror because I feel exactly the same as I did when I was 18 getting off the plane to go to Juilliard in New York.

If I feel I can play a part I do everything in my power to try to play it.

Well, I have a band, Sadie and the Hotheads, and we have an album that is already out that is available on our website.

So the English approach to show business and their work is more - and this is a big generalization, I hasten to say - but it's more, they work on it as a craft job.

As far as I can see women who have facelifts don't look younger, just weirder. You see them on screen with these tight, little porcelain faces - then the hand goes up to the face and it looks like it belongs to an alien. I find it really freaky.

To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.

I have a terrible sense of direction.

By definition, an actor's life is a recipe for regret. There are always roads you could have taken. But I've lived long enough to realise that each road has its own rewards.

Whenever I work on anything, there's always the fantasy that what one is doing is the next 'Citizen Kane'-slash-'Sopranos.'

I've got my private life - that's sacred - and I didn't have that before.

There is nothing in my life where I view myself as a 1920s person.

I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career going into your 50s.

I'm someone who's done the opposite of whatever the received wisdom is, to keep your career going into your 50s.

I like writing letters and receiving letters. It's a shame that we've lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. I mourn that.

Now we have to contend with overstimulation and too many opportunities all the time, and too many decisions all the time.

I've been in things that have impressed people and they've come up to congratulate you but in a kind of, you-must-think-you're-really-special way.

It's very tough when two creative people are together.

That feeling of being 19 or 20 and 'hot' in Hollywood was so intense.