Helen Mirren

Whenever I see the queen, I always think, Oh, there I am!

I'm a get-a-dress-at-the-thrift-shop-but-open-a-bottle-of-champagne kind of person.

The first time you taste something spectacular, it's never quite the same again.

Being the daughter of a cabbie, I really do appreciate a good back route.

Patience can be a good thing — but not necessarily. Sometimes it's not so bad to be impatient. I'm a little bit too polite.

The best compliment? Right after winning the Oscar, when everyone was going home, they let these little gold Oscary shapes flutter down from the ceiling. Leonardo DiCaprio came over, bowed down, and kissed my hand. It was the most fabulous moment — such a lovely gesture. He didn't say anything.

Being directed by your husband is difficult. But it's fabulous to go home and sleep with the director.

I drink just as much tea when I'm in Los Angeles as I do when I'm in London. I take my tea bags with me wherever I go. PG Tips.

We're all idiots when we're young. We don't think we are, but we are. So we should be.

Shakespeare was writing at a time of great censorship. You couldn't say certain things or you'd literally have your head chopped off. But within those parameters he found great freedom.

The whole thing of clothes is insane. You can spend a dollar on a jacket in a thrift store. And you can spend a thousand dollars on a jacket in a shop. And if you saw those two jackets walking down the street, you probably wouldn't know which was which.

I don't throw a lot of parties. I find throwing parties a bit intimidating. What makes a good one? Loads and loads of drink, I suppose. But that can be a disaster as well.

While you're doing it, it's utterly, utterly, obsessively absorbing. Nothing is more important to you at that time and you can't believe anyone could be interested in anything else. I used to come out of the theater and wonder: How can the world be going on? The only thing that matters is this play.

Chemistry is an absolute mystery. People who really don't like each other can have fantastic chemistry onscreen. And people who adore each other can have absolutely no chemistry onscreen. It's totally weird — lightning in a bottle.

There's no good way to waste your time. Wasting time is just wasting time.

Time accelerates, doesn't it?

The hardest period in life is one's twenties. It's a shame because you're your most gorgeous and you're physically in peak condition. But it's actually when you're most insecure and full of self-doubt. When you don't know what's going to happen, it's frightening.

It would be wrong to think that you're always right and correct and perfect and brilliant. Self-doubt is the thing that drives you to try to improve yourself.

The world of politics never spoke to me because it always seemed to be a world of compromise and pragmatism. That didn't fit in with my rather soppy idealism.

Very often I've done the unexpected just to shake things up a bit. That's been a good way to work.

I am quite spiritual. I believed in the fairies when I was a child. I still do sort of believe in the fairies. And the leprechauns. But I don't believe in God.

It's such a crapshoot, and very often the talented people get lost by the wayside and the people with less talent are successful, and you don't know why. It's all such a mysterious random thing, so it's very hard to give people advice.

You don't want to mislead people. They'll say, "Oh, it's my dream. I just have to believe in myself and it'll happen." It's just not true. Some people throw away their lives following a dream and a dream is all it was. On the other hand, you do have to believe in yourself for anything to happen.

I'm in London watching the wind blow through a tree, and it's a wonderful thing to see.

Some people are brilliant at dying. It's hard to stop breathing, and inevitably you get an itchy nose or something. The trick of dying onstage is to make sure you do it behind the sofa or in a dark corner.

-Helen Mirren