Quotations and phrases

And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.
-- Judi Dench

Because, you know, I can't work a bicycle pump.
-- Judi Dench

I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day.
-- Judi Dench

I don't like reading scripts very much. I like it better for someone to just explain to me what it is about this story.
-- Judi Dench

I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.
-- Judi Dench

I have no control over a film. I don't know what will be left on the cutting floor.
-- Judi Dench

I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.
-- Judi Dench

I love being part of a company, and telling a story.
-- Judi Dench

I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.
-- Judi Dench

I think you've got to have your feet planted firmly on the ground, especially in this business, and you must not believe things that are said or written about you, because everything gets out of proportion one way or the other.
-- Judi Dench

I trained as a designer, so I'm always terribly keen about what I'm going to look like.
-- Judi Dench

I was in Yorkshire. We were a family of five and I used to be sent sometimes to get the rations for the week and I was easily able to carry them back. It was like one egg and a tiny bit of tea.
-- Judi Dench

I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.
-- Judi Dench

I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it's too late.
-- Judi Dench

I've figured out what to do so far, but it's always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh! in your face. That's why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.
-- Judi Dench

In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.
-- Judi Dench

It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M. I didn't realize at the time that it would be so noticed.
-- Judi Dench

It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.
-- Judi Dench

It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven't done.
-- Judi Dench

It was good to learn so early. They're not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.
-- Judi Dench

It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.
-- Judi Dench

Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.
-- Judi Dench

My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.
-- Judi Dench

People think you know beforehand when you win an Oscar - I can assure you you don't.
-- Judi Dench

Seriously, though, I think I never ceased to be grateful of the fact that I am able to do a job that I really love - I never got over that.
-- Judi Dench

Since Michael died I think I've worked constantly. Friends and colleagues are very sustaining. They're the people who get you through it... It's no good to be on your own.
-- Judi Dench

Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.
-- Judi Dench

Sometimes nudity is gratuitous. We just live in a society where everything goes.
-- Judi Dench

The blessing is you then - if you're very lucky - you work with people who really know the business of filmmaking.
-- Judi Dench

The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.
-- Judi Dench

The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?
-- Judi Dench

The theater is the thing I love doing most.
-- Judi Dench

The thing about not reading scripts and my wanting a director to tell me a story is a risk I need to take. I need that real fear.
-- Judi Dench

All quotations and phrases said by Judi Dench including famous quotes