Quotes from Miranda Richardson

I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.

My roots are still in Britain, that's where I live, that's the place where I come from.

Why did I not stop to have children? I suppose because the opportunity didn't present itself. Yes, many women feel they are not complete without having children, but I have different creative outlets.

If you only took on roles that had the same qualities, then I suppose it might make a critic feel better, if he can see some kind of bedrock. Perhaps that's the old definition of a star, someone who's always going to come up with the same goods. But it intimates limitation to me and I don't want to think of the job like that.

But I hope that you walk around the corner and you get very surprised.

I like people to be surprised by the turn of events. I don't want things just to be pat and formulaic. If there's some sort of internal combustion in the character or a desire to change the way things are going, that makes for conflict, which is the essence of drama.

Insecurity, commonly regarded as a weakness in normal people, is the basic tool of the actor's trade.

And there's no way I'm going to do Dame Edna.

It makes me feel resilient when you tackle different things.

You can have a laugh in Los Angeles, or you can weep in Los Angeles, depending on your attitude towards it.

I'm not someone who can lie on a beach and do nothing. I am not sure what you are supposed to do, so I get bored. I prefer to have a purpose, such as going to Alaska to see orca whales.

I've never felt stigmatized in my profession, nor have I allowed myself to. I don't feel either male or female, I feel I am just me, and I should be able to do whatever I like.

I like the personality of the Belgians. They're deeply eccentric, which is something that comes across in their design - terrific.

If I don't believe in a role, I can't pull it off.

For years, I never knowingly went on a holiday. When I travelled, it was for work. Now I am a huge advocate, particularly to places which have amazing wildlife, such as Antarctica, India and Patagonia.

I need my friends, I need my house, I need my garden.

You cant please all the people all the time.

Somebody referred to me as a ringleader, which I wouldn't have classed myself as, but anyway, there you go.

It's difficult to keep in touch with someone when you're moving around all the time. I've decided that you can have it all, but you can't have it all, all of the time.

I have no idea what my persona would be. As far as I'm concerned, I'm changing all the time.

London keeps me grounded. We don't get praised every time we open our gobs there.

It's a wonderful profession, and it opens lots of doors, and I think it's quite right that people can accuse actors and actresses of being dilettante, but you learn on every job, whatever it is, the process moves you on in some way, and yeah, I want to expand my knowledge of our existence, I suppose.

I'm so boring that press kind of leave me alone now. People will believe what they want to believe anyway.

I don't necessarily wait for that massive leading role. I want to keep the juices flowing.