Emma Thompson Quotations

I've a problem with the word charity because I think that NGOs, as I prefer calling them, really do take the work of moral and social responsibilities that ought to be taken on by governments.

The thing that influenced me most in relation to 'Nanny McPhee' were the Westerns I watched with my father. All the Spaghetti Westerns; all the Virginians; all the High Chaparrals. Because if you think about the form, it's a stranger from out of town.

I don't think people understand that being poor means you have to work from dawn until dusk just to survive through the day. I think there's some notion that poor people lie about all day not doing anything.

This morning, I went to wipe my hands on a tea towel, and while I was using it, it seemed like it felt a bit light. I unfolded it and realized my daughter had cut little bits out of it to make frocks for her dolls!

If you're actually allowing your creative part to control your writing rather than a more commercial instinct or motive, then you'll find that all sorts of interesting things will bubble up to the surface.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

If you've got to my age, you've probably had your heart broken many times. So it's not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.

I hate the way market forces try to separate us out in to the appropriate demographic - basically in order to sell us things. We need to find stories that we can enjoy together, not separately.

I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch.

We need men and women to sit down and talk to each other about sex honestly and openly. That would help us fight Aids so immediately. But our lack of communication is hugely problematic.

Maybe I don't take myself so seriously any more. And I don't care how I'm judged. I'm past all that.

My mother has never approved of high heels. As a result, I have never been able to walk in high heels - and they were all I ever wanted. So of course, my daughter has two pairs.

A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they're thinking about is how they look.

You can't imagine what satisfaction can be gotten from throwing a pie into someone's face.

We belabour, I think, under a very heavy crust of consumerism really

I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals.

It is remarkable how many misconceptions there are here about life in the developing world and I think that that knowledge gap has done a lot to contribute to the imbalance quite frankly.

London has always been a haven for victims of cruelty, and been improved by them. Yet I can see it changing now. Outsiders are demonised, there are little bits of legislation, people are scared.

We've got people looking at our seamy side and our sad side a lot of the time because that's easier. It's much more difficult to make a film about happiness with lots of jokes in it.

British aren't really known for their physical loveliness but firemen, generally speaking, are gorgeous.

Children are the most wonderful audiences. What's struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap.

I do think that despite my best efforts to resist it, I am now a grown-up. It's due to lots of very difficult decisions that you make over a long period of time - about motherhood, wifehood, and work, and all the things that one has to make decisions about.

Indeed - judicious, consistent parenting is a dream of mine. No judgements, learning space and listening carefully are my goals.

When husbands and fathers leave, their wives and daughters tend to value themselves less as a result.

Sometimes you'll have some things, and sometimes you'll have other things. And you do not need it all at once; it's not good for you.

There is that thing about not working with animals and children - I don't think that's true. Although you should never work with donkeys.

Film is so much to do with perfection and how differently you can feel about someone at the beginning of the film and the end of the film.

If you don't want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.

I don't mean being famous is a perk, because one knows that it's not necessarily a perk, but there are certain perks to being well-known and respected in one's field. Public perks. Like, I don't know, general friendliness and willingness to please, just to point out two.

The trouble is it's very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society, differently and you have to respond to it differently.

You can't be a great mum and work the whole time necessarily; those two things aren't ideal. We have an awful lot to work on and to debate about in relation to our working lives, because it isn't working for a lot of people, particularly for a lot of women.

I have had lots of friends who've been affected by Aids and a very good friend of mine, Oscar Moore, died of Aids and I was with him in his last year quite a bit. And of course he was a man living in a very rich culture with a wealthy family who was able to afford health care.

It's not my fault that there is this gap between rich and poor, it is the fault of governments. I want a different world. One where I don't wake up thinking I'm so lucky to be able to feed my daughter.

Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder.

My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman.

During an election, it's like they're doing my job: they're going around banging the drum for their party and selling their movie. You know, it's the same thing.

The only way you can have it all is by delegating all the running of the home to other people - which I don't ever want to do... So you do it yourself, and it takes time and energy and effort. And if you give it the time, it's profoundly enjoyable.

Sometimes I get to put on posh frocks and be Madam Glamour, the vendor of my wares. My lovely friend Kath, a stylist, puts me into things I'd never dream of. But my real life is very different. It's very, very home-based - an intense domestic life, that's the core of everything.

I don't have technique because I never learnt any.

Tell him I mind having to look pretty, that's what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort.

What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?

I think that my work is my attempt, I suppose, is to try and become a piece of connective tissue. I'm trying to communicate with people here and in America - in rich countries - about what I see on the ground in badly affected areas

I think the point about ActionAid is what it's asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.

I understand what it's like to come with your family, and to uproot yourself and come to another culture. You need a lot of support. People say, 'She's got her daughter; she's got her husband.' Yeah, but she hasn't got anyone else.

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.

The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.

A lot of people in my world - in the acting world - have either lost friends to Aids or live with HIV because its origin in our culture, in New York for instance, was in the gay community.

I have to write for everyone. What really fascinates me is how you make films or make stories that can genuinely be shared by different groups.

One is a child when one has a child. No one says, 'You will never be the same again.' Which is the truth! And we're all supposed to be happy all the time. What is that about?

Let's see how this one goes, but I have one up my sleeve if we think that people want it.

She was the only one that didn't react to me when I was in Nanny mode.

Having reached 40 this year, if they were going to find someone to play opposite me they'd have to exhume him.

I would say to people, for heaven's sake, if you're going to have kids you've got to put the work and the time into it.

Parents always think it's the kids' fault. If they're naughty, it's the kids' fault. Not true! Children generally are not naughty for no reason.

I think if you took charities and NGOs out of the mix, certainly in developing countries, you would find that there would be huge trouble immediately.

I think it would be terrible if what children come away (with) from this movie was that you've always got to behave. No! Not so!

When you buy Fairtrade products you can guarantee that the farmers who have worked hard to grow them get a minimum price. Fairtrade is a way of giving regular support - and enjoying delicious high quality foods at the same time.

My worst quality is impatience.

There is a lot of interest in post office art today, I think people are appreciating what we have, ... We're excited and starting to look up to see what's there, and that is my purpose.

Every name I think of gets pooh-poohed by my partner, the young Mr. Greg Wise, ... I've sort of given up thinking of names now.

I've been toying with names like Winston and Clementine, but I don't think they're going to wash,

The way, I think, anything has ever really changed on this planet is through large groups of very ordinary people saying something finally.

They were like, 'You can't have that. It's too expensive.' I was like, 'OK, 29.' Then I slowly went down to 17, 13, 11, nine. I said, 'I'm not going any less than nine. It's not going to make sense and there's not going to be enough kids.' But then I realized I could not chart nine kids in an hour and a half.

They still get jilted. They're still looking for people to marry. They're still worried about how they are going to survive financially. There are still mothers who want to get their daughters married.

It's lovely to be here, and at least it's, you know, no effort.

It was a hard time but you have to get on with things.You can't wander around miserable.

It took them longer to get me dolled up for Elinor in Sense And Sensibility because it took so long to do the hair.

The gap was so long because it needed to be. It took that time - that's the time it took,

The flashbacks are parallel for me. You experience two storylines at the same time, and I'm not switching from one time to another.

If there's a role you're playing and there's a great deal of material to explore because the person was real then it's a completely different preparation time and message to playing someone fictional.

It doesn't matter how good the movie is. What matters is what it takes during the opening weekend. It's slightly distressing sometimes but that's how it works.

I think people say you shouldn't work with children or animals, but you must only work with children.

Is love a fancy or a feeling.... or a Ferrars?

Without the ice, the earth will fall

My husband is here and I'd like to thank him, for many things, but first of all for pointing out that I had a big hole in my frock and then that my nipples were pointing in different directions. It's good to have an expert there to help you with that sort of thing.

The Catholic Church - it's so difficult because I don't want say anything offensive but it makes me very angry that religious leaders from this faith have tried to respond negatively to sexual education and to the promotion of condom use

Laughter is a celebration of our failings. That's what clowns are for. And that's what I am.

I have a lot of people to thank but they're none of them here so I'm not going to bother.

Can he love her? Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn - to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise...

I Don't Need the nicotene patch, Penny - I smoke cigarettes.

Piracy is our only option.

I`ve realized that in all the great stories, even if there`s a happily-ever-after ending, there`s something sad.

There is a painful difference between the expectation of an unpleasant event and its final certainty.

Marianne Dashwood looks at gray skies and sees blue. That's all very well, and it's not something you ever want entirely to lose. But you must lose a little of it; otherwise you're going to get wet.

Got up this morning and could not find my glasses. Finally had to seek assistance. Kate [Winslet] found them inside a flower arrangement.

I've never been on the cover of Empire. I'm very bitter. I've got an award but now I feel sad and cross.

The insanity of consumption bothers me. Talk about the opiate of the masses. It ain't religion anymore. It's stuff.

The best way [to survive] the red carpet is by wearing Ugg boots. But unfortunately, I have not yet managed to persuade the people who style me at these times to let me do that.

Don't ever go on a diet. Just don't. Walk away. Diets are the spawn of Satan.

The films I've made for children have been my hardest work, my best, because kids deserve the best.

It's such a cold night and it's the only time I've actively been grateful for menopause. I've been entirely comfortable.

I ask Laurie it it's possible to get trained fish. Lindsay says this is how we know I've never produced a movie.

Well, I met Sandy Bullock at an awards thing a couple years ago, and she said to me, 'If I were gay, you'd be the one.' and I said, 'I'm there!'

[Fighting Climate Change] is important for every single person on the planet, which is why it has to be the greatest grassroots movement of all time. This is the battle of our lives. We're fighting for our children.

If you can't fail then how can you possible develop as a communicator or as a creator of anything? We are locked into a deeply unhealthy notion that somehow you've got to succeed all the time. An appalling notion. Any painter or writer will tell you that that is no way to proceed. One of the things that will kill off a decent actor, especially a young actor early on and they will never recover from it, is too much success. It's disastrous. You stop being criticized, therefore you stop challenging yourself. You then can't afford to fail because there's too far to fall.

I think that the Bible as a system of moral guidance in the 21st century is insufficient, to put it mildly. I feel quite strongly that we need a new moral lodestone if we can't rely on what is inside our own selves. Which I think, actually, is pretty reliable.

I was in Los Angeles making 'Dead Again' and the producer, Lindsay Doran , asked me if I'd be interested in adapting this book, .. Austen is my favorite author and I thought, 'Well, of course, I'd be very interested, but I don't know how. I don't know where to start, A, writing a screenplay and B, sort of adapting it from a great novel.

I think our hearts are very chemical and we change the way we see people according to how we feel about them. That's what love is, in a way.