I think the first time I realised Downton Abbey was a hit was when I was sitting in a tea shop in New York and the couple next to me were talking about Downton Abbey, and then they recognised me.

If Shakespeare was around today I would ask him out to dinner. The only thing I don't like about him is the way he did his hair.

I think some period drama can be quite alienating, but 'Downton' isn't. This is going to sound quite, um, pretentious, but someone said that it's like a soap written by a poet.

Cooking can cure almost anything.

I come from a very working-class background, so my family would have been downstairs in the past, as opposed to upstairs. People are often quite surprised to hear that, that I'm not actually posh.

I had dance training from a very young age, 3 or 4... It taught me how to present myself, about preparation and working in an ensemble, and its something that carries with me to this day.

I don't get recognized all the time, but it tends to happen more in America, and people are so lovely when they do.

I love discovering tiny streets.

I don't mind wearing a corset; it informs your posture, changes the way you move, you can't slouch.

I love cycling, but if I could find a way of building something above the streets for cyclists, that would be amazing. We need even more space.

I get so excited about reading a new script.

Children know when they are being sold a sanitised version of the world, and I think that's a betrayal of the relationship between author and reader.

The Christian is like the ripening corn; the riper he grows the more lowly he bends his head.

Heaven: A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound on yours.

The Irish aren't great singers, but they have great songs.

Susan Campbell has brought Isabella's fascinating forgotten story back to life with the deep research of a born historian and the vibrant readable prose style of a veteran journalist.

If liberty is not entire it is not liberty.

We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.

Dedicate one's life to truth.

I was trying to write a straightforward book of sociological analysis, or at least cultural criticism, and I failed.

When a man appreciates only eating and sleeping, what excellence has he over the reptiles?