I mean, I've done musicals, but it's not my best thing.

People have preconceptions about women of a certain age.

Coming eyeball to eyeball with a hummingbird on my terrace is as exciting to me as any celebrity Ive met as a result of Downton Abbey.

I can do basics, but I'm not a proper cook. I can do a roast. I can stick a chicken in the oven with vegetables.

The first meal my husband ever made me was a chicken curry. I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life.

I get invited to a lot more glamorous parties since Ive been in Downton Abbey, which has made me much more fashion conscious.

I did an O-level in domestic science when I was at school, but on the day of the practical exam, it was a cookery nightmare.

Ive been to the White House and had Hilary Clinton push through the crowd to come and meet me. Chelsea Clinton, too.

I believe anything can happen.

I always admire people who have passion.

As an actor, you never know where the works going to come, so you have to be flexible about it.

Ideas tyrannize the man who has but few.

Bolivian women sewed their lips shut for days. They threaded needles through their skin to stop their speech, to show what good speaking had done them.

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can't stand Picasso those who can't stand Raphael and those who've never heard of either of them.

I came to parenting the way most of us do - knowing nothing and trying to learn everything.

If you're famous, I don't - for the life of me - I don't understand why any famous person would ever be on Twitter.

By nature, men love newfangledness.

Quit playing, start praying. Quit feasting, start fasting. Talk less with men, talk more with God. Listen less to men, listen to the words of God. Skip travel, start travail.

Beauty without intelligence is like a hook without bait.

He's my elvis. I idolize Nusrat, he's a god, too

The only way to make a man worthy of love is by loving him.