My background is really being a writer's actor - that seems to be the way I work best, bringing out the best of writing. There's a whole range of acting skills, and some people can be astonishing with very poor material. That's not me; my skill is essentially unlocking the writing.

Lindsay Duncan

I loved 'Homeland' - it's such an intriguing, intelligent piece of television, and I am fascinated by them making a hero and heroine that are so odd, so flawed and so complicated. It is a programme that really draws you in.

Lindsay Duncan

No matter how much we disagree with people, demonising them doesn't get us anywhere; it merely indicates a closed mind.

Lindsay Duncan

I've been listening to a new band called Wolf Alice, courtesy of my son. The vocalist, Ellie Rowsell, has a gorgeous voice.

Lindsay Duncan

My mother was always deeply attracted to anything medical, and I think she would have loved me to have been a doctor. My father was in the army for 21 years, came out just before I was born. There was no history of showbusiness on either side of the family, but they were completely supportive.

Lindsay Duncan

I've always been a material-based actor. That's what I've done, the choices I've made - like a heat-seeking missile.

Lindsay Duncan

It's an important point to make that people can't just be invalidated, eradicated, because they don't fit tidily into a box. And more and more, the modern world is all about conformity.

Lindsay Duncan

I've always had not just an affection but a real love for the theater family in New York, and I really feel it is a family. I'm so touched by the generosity of everyone there.

Lindsay Duncan

A certain amount of anger doesn't make us less empathetic, less humane, less loving. It just makes us real.

Lindsay Duncan

The excitement of stepping onto a stage - there's nothing quite like it.

Lindsay Duncan

My background is really being a writer's actor - that seems to be the way I work best, bringing out the best of writing. There's a whole range of acting skills, and some people can be astonishing with very poor material. That's not me; my skill is essentially unlocking the writing.

Lindsay Duncan

I know I'll always work. In what form, it really doesn't matter.

Lindsay Duncan

I do feel almost violent when I'm watching things that I don't think are good enough. I get furious for the audience. I want to say to them, 'This play is not supposed to be like this. They've got it completely wrong. You should be electrified by this.'

Lindsay Duncan

My parents' generation was definitely pre-telly, and they knew how to entertain each other. Everybody knew something that they could do - a song or a poem, or a piece of music. At school, I remember being a cat and then a budgie and then a bumble bee. I obviously thought all that was marvelous.

Lindsay Duncan

I was the suburban kid of Scottish parents, and the idea of an acting career was so beyond my experience. I didn't even know there were drama schools until a friend told me.

Lindsay Duncan

If someone said I had enough money and I could take six months off, I would run in an instant.

Lindsay Duncan

I suppose because I do and can work in the theatre, I don't see work as closing down as an older woman.

Lindsay Duncan

I don't have any desire to be better known.

Lindsay Duncan

Deep down, I think I would be utterly miserable in Hollywood.

Lindsay Duncan

That kind of creaming off the pretty postcard image of the past, I think, is a road to nowhere.

Lindsay Duncan

I have done some wonderful television, but you know, there's not as much exceptional material as there is in the theatre. So I do a lot of theatre, but really, as with most actors, I just love going from one to another. It's stimulating, it's diverting, it's a different way of life, and you know, I dearly like a good mix.

Lindsay Duncan