Quotes by Francesca Annis

• Too often, older women are seen as victims, but I know lots of formidable women who have marvellous jobs as well as a full erotic life, and children and friends and family.
• The minute anyone's getting anxious I say, You must eat and you must sleep. They're the two vital elements for a healthy life.
• The thing about doing anything artificial to your hair is that you have to look after it. So you're always vulnerable to the weather and time.
• There is not enough celebration of companionship. Relationships aren't just about eroticism and sexuality.
• When I was starting out, young actresses had the studio system to protect them. Now you have a host of sharks, from your agent to your publicist to your lawyer.
• You can love more than one person in your life, but things will be different. There'll be a different dynamic. Needs and desires change.
• You have to be careful not to let your fear stop you doing things. It's very exciting to test yourself.
• The wonderful thing about acting is you move along with your decade. The older you get, the more interesting the parts you get to play and you bring more of your personal experience to the part.
• I'm often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I'm glad I didn't go, because if I had I wouldn't have my extended family, which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.
• The first thing you have to do is accept that decay sets in and there's nothing you can do about it.
• I have yet to see a drama that puts forward women who are successful and have a family. Women are nearly always seen as victims.
• I maintain the rather old-fashioned view that this is my work and it's in the public arena, but that doesn't entitle everyone to know what happened at home before coming here.
• I think people have surgery for psychological reasons more than because of their looks.
• I used to suffer from excessive pride. Well, I got over that one.
• I was asked to be in Vogue but I said no. I didn't want to advertise make-up. I didn't want to be seen as a sex symbol.
• I'll dance to anything: Bob Marley or rap.
• I'm an actress, not a pin-up.
• I have made a public statement about me and Ralph by being seen with him. I don't need to make any other. You can live the way you want.
• I'm one of the great unemployed looking for the next job. I'm waiting for the right offer. Like anyone, I want something that turns me on inside.
• I'm trying to learn to smoke, which is rather weird when everyone is trying to stop. I'm not a smoker. But my character only smokes as an affectation.
• If people think I look good, it's the make-up.
• Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.
• Roman's wife Sharon Tate had been murdered by Charles Manson the year before, but Roman had been through so much leaving the Warsaw ghetto that he was very strong and private.
• Some actors get fired up by the sound of the audience. I just want to retreat.
• I go on giving interviews because I've been brought up to support the projects I'm involved in. When you've enjoyed working on a production, you want to do them a favour.
• Thank God we're not like America: everyone wants to look like they're 20. In Europe we admire grown-up women. I think men revere older women.
• I do think it's important to live in the present because in that way you won't be living in a state of regret.
• Sometimes sushi is just superb, and other times there's nothing like a great big steak. It depends where your taste buds are at the time.
• However successful you are, there is no substitute for a close relationship. We all need them.
• I don't buy the tabloids, but you're surrounded by it all and people tell you things they've read. I'd be sitting on a train looking over someone's shoulder and thinking: That's familiar... oh my God, it's me.
• I don't need a piece of paper to suggest that I can commit myself.
• As you grow older, your whole life becomes very rich, multifaceted.
• Having children with someone is the real bond.
• I am not a fanatic about anything. I do what I can do when I've got the time.
• I am not going to share my private life with millions of people. I don't find a need to do that and nobody else close to me does either.
• I am pretty self-indulgent.
• I don't believe in expending energy on something you can't do anything about. If there was some easy way of fixing things, I'd probably do it.
• I consulted a Chinese herbalist and spent two weeks on an island off the coast of Zanzibar. I was away from any kind of contemporary technology.
• I couldn't imagine playing someone young now; it would be so boring.
• I didn't choose to be an actress.
• I do find acting cathartic.
• I can feel the 60S looming. In my profession, I've just moved along with my age. By thinking in decades, rather than whether someone's 42 or 47, you can give yourself a whole 10 years to turn yourself around in.
• Everything has changed. An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive.