Top 30 Harriet Walter Quotes

Where does an actress go after playing Cleopatra’s magnificent death? Why didn’t Shakespeare write more – and more powerful – roles for mature women?

I do think that there are certain parts, if you are lucky enough to play them, that are bigger than you, and they stretch you. I don’t think you become a bigger person, but you develop certain muscles you didn’t have before.

Love is different at different stages of your life.

I’ve one of those brains that doesn’t quieten down.

I yearn to make a really good, intelligent movie before I die: I don’t completely rule out the possibility, but in Hollywood, I’m not bankable.

Work has been the central column for most of my life; it has always been my identity.

I’m childish and silly. Most people tease me because I’m a bit daft.

My centre of who I thought I was was never very consciously about being beautiful or attractive – I think I’m one of those people who’s actually grown into their looks.

Cleopatra was exhausting to play, but also completely exhilarating. She creates her own energy.

I lived with my mother all my life until she died, and I don’t really think I knew her, because I was always using her as my mother, if you know what I mean.

The language is always powerful in Shakespeare, but with ‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ the speeches are so big and muscular and rich – exhausting to speak, actually.

Caring less about what people think is a big thing for me.

Male playwrights, on the whole, are probably more interested in male characters. They need women characters to be the women in their lives or to be the domestic difficulty.

I read, I gossip, I do crosswords. I think chatting with friends is relaxing. I’ve picked them up all through my life – if you live long enough, you end up with quite a large circle.

I’m no longer the young woman I was playing before, and I’m in a profession where that continuum that is me is irrelevant to most people – they’re meeting me for the first time, seeing me for the first time, and they’re seeing an old woman, so that’s what I’ve got to start being.

I came up almost completely through the subsidised theatre. I have never been absolutely at the market interface, where I’ve got to sell my wares or die – I’ve always been protected from that.

Luckily, each generation brings forth great writers, actors, directors, and designers.

I’m very aware that after you’ve played Cleopatra, there’s not a lot that can top that in this sphere, so it means that I want to almost change the sphere I work in rather completely because I will always be comparing it to Cleopatra.

As I have got older, I have become easier on myself. It’s about realising things can’t be perfect.

I’ve been taking lessons in Damehood from Judi Dench. Being a Dame is useful in restaurants, hotels, and restaurants, Judi says, but you have to get someone else to do the booking.

I was not emotionally mature enough to accept any kind of success when I was young. I needed to go that long route.

I’ve witnessed the survival of the theatre several times when it was meant to be dying.

When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger’s wife.

I vote, but I don’t feel that I’m achieving much when I do.

Acting is what I do with who I am.

As long as I am still interested and curious, I enjoy getting up in the morning, but I can’t say I have a happy smile on my face 24/7.

Romance is about investing in the future – with older people, there is less time for happy ever after.

I decided I was going to play Cleopatra as someone with a brain. She’s kept Egypt, this tiny country, in a balance of power with the almighty Roman empire, and she’s done it through force of personality.

I’ve been blessed with pretty strong stamina and healthy genes, so I’d call myself sensible. I’ve had regular mammograms ever since I found a lump in my breast when I was 30. Thankfully, all was well.

You need to distinguish between getting something off your chest that won‘t help anyone else or saying something because you know you will be hell to live with if you don’t. Quite often, this will be beyond your control.