I'm no longer the young woman I was playing before, and I'm in a profession where that continuum that is me is irrelevant to most people - they're meeting me for the first time, seeing me for the first time, and they're seeing an old woman, so that's what I've got to start being.

Harriet Walter

I'm childish and silly. Most people tease me because I'm a bit daft.

Harriet Walter

Caring less about what people think is a big thing for me.

Harriet Walter

My centre of who I thought I was was never very consciously about being beautiful or attractive - I think I'm one of those people who's actually grown into their looks.

Harriet Walter

Love is different at different stages of your life.

Harriet Walter

Cleopatra was exhausting to play, but also completely exhilarating. She creates her own energy.

Harriet Walter

I've witnessed the survival of the theatre several times when it was meant to be dying.

Harriet Walter

I was not emotionally mature enough to accept any kind of success when I was young. I needed to go that long route.

Harriet Walter

I vote, but I don't feel that I'm achieving much when I do.

Harriet Walter

I just like watching people who really are not self-conscious, who aren't aware, because I fear that one could become too self-conscious, too artful, as an actor. Sometimes if you look at somebody, you can extrapolate from their exterior what might be happening in their interior. I'm nosy.

Harriet Walter

I'm very aware that after you've played Cleopatra, there's not a lot that can top that in this sphere, so it means that I want to almost change the sphere I work in rather completely because I will always be comparing it to Cleopatra.

Harriet Walter

I yearn to make a really good, intelligent movie before I die: I don't completely rule out the possibility, but in Hollywood, I'm not bankable.

Harriet Walter

When I was really young, I wanted to be a fishmonger's wife.

Harriet Walter

Where does an actress go after playing Cleopatra's magnificent death? Why didn't Shakespeare write more - and more powerful - roles for mature women?

Harriet Walter

Romance is about investing in the future - with older people, there is less time for happy ever after.

Harriet Walter

I think I have a deep-seated fear of being misunderstood. Or being misjudged.

Harriet Walter

I've done a lot of Shakespeare over the years. You start to realise how the plays fit together; he's always using pieces from one and slotting them into others.

Harriet Walter

I came up almost completely through the subsidised theatre. I have never been absolutely at the market interface, where I've got to sell my wares or die - I've always been protected from that.

Harriet Walter

I lived with my mother all my life until she died, and I don't really think I knew her, because I was always using her as my mother, if you know what I mean.

Harriet Walter

Some people are instantly brilliant. The Kenneth Branaghs of this world are ready-formed actors at 23 - he has used his success in lots of different ways - but there are people out there for whom acting is: 'Ooh, I can get on the telly and be famous.'

Harriet Walter

I've been blessed with pretty strong stamina and healthy genes, so I'd call myself sensible. I've had regular mammograms ever since I found a lump in my breast when I was 30. Thankfully, all was well.

Harriet Walter