But I remember the morning after The Mask of Virtue-which is the first play I did at the West End-that some critics saw fit to be as foolish as to say that I was a great actress. And I thought, that was a foolish, wicked thing to say, because it put such an onus and such a responsibility onto me, which I simply wasn't able to carry. And it took me years to learn enough to live up to what they said-for those first notices. I find it so stupid. I remember the critic very well, and have never forgiven him.

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I've always been mad about cats.

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I think Edith Evans is the most marvelous actress in the world and she can look beautiful. People who aren't beautiful can look beautiful. She can look as beautiful as Diana Cooper, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.

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Sometimes I dread the truth of the lines I say. But the dread must never show.

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I don't know what that Method is. Acting is life, to me, and should be.

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I'm not a film star; I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity.

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Most of us have compromised with life. Those who fight for what they want will always thrill us.

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I'm not young. What's wrong with that?

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Classical plays require more imagination and more general training to be able to do. That's why I like playing Shakespeare better than anything else.

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A lucky thing Eva Peron was. She died at 32. I'm already 45.

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