I used to say Edinburgh was a beautiful actress with no talent. I thought it was just like a shortbread tin. I think that's because I did six Festivals in a row there, and I never saw the real Edinburgh, just a lot of deeply annoying Cambridge Footlights kids wanting to be actresses.

Michelle Gomez

I always say: 'If I'm lucky enough to be given the opportunity to work again, that's it, I'm being wheeled on, sitting on a sofa, and someone's going to feed me grapes, and I'm not getting up.'

Michelle Gomez

It's good for me to pull away from something that is just done for effect, which was basically Sue White in 'Green Wing.' In that, it was very much: if in trouble, gurn, or fall down. There was no character background to Sue. You didn't know who she was. She didn't have any toehold in any kind of reality.

Michelle Gomez

There are times when you come across somebody that's really impressive, someone that's got a proper living and really does make a difference to people's lives. Then I do feel a bit of a wanker, admitting I'm an actress. That's hard to say to someone who may be making a difference. But I don't know how I could change things.

Michelle Gomez

I became an actress because I'm lazy. I wouldn't apply myself at school.

Michelle Gomez

I feel so Scottish when I go abroad, and I'm so proud of it, but for me, it's not a political statement - I just happen to be Scottish.

Michelle Gomez

I used to say Edinburgh was a beautiful actress with no talent. I thought it was just like a shortbread tin. I think that's because I did six Festivals in a row there, and I never saw the real Edinburgh, just a lot of deeply annoying Cambridge Footlights kids wanting to be actresses.

Michelle Gomez

The older I get, the more I'm starting to believe in myself. I'm beginning to think of roles that I could do that I would not have allowed myself to think of before, saying: 'That's not for me, that's for the big guns.'

Michelle Gomez

I was quite bright, but I didn't do much with it, and I thought acting was dressing up and shouting for a living - which, of course, it isn't.

Michelle Gomez

I have no interest in being a celebrity. I wouldn't go to anything that I wasn't involved in just for the sake of wearing a nice frock and having my picture taken. That part of the business doesn't make me feel very comfortable.

Michelle Gomez

I have no real ambition or strategy. If this was all to finish, it's totally fine. There's a lot more to do out there than put on silly frocks and shout for a living. I could always go back to, 'Would you like soup with that?'

Michelle Gomez

Jack wasn't my type at all. I thought he was too young and too posh, and I told him that. Plus, I couldn't deal with his dodgy bowl-cut. But he wore me down.

Michelle Gomez

I had a very bad first experience of Shakespeare at school, and, now I'm determined to put that wrong right and just make Shakespeare as vivid and live as possible.

Michelle Gomez

I'd always used humour as a weapon, as a protection. But being able to make people laugh is a way of not getting in too deep; it's a quick, transient fix.

Michelle Gomez

The older I get, the more I'm starting to believe in myself.

Michelle Gomez

I wouldn't apply myself at school. I was quite bright, but I didn't do much with it, and I thought acting was dressing up and shouting for a living.

Michelle Gomez

I bring so much of myself to each character that there's always a worrying point when I think: 'Oh no, I'm really that person.'

Michelle Gomez

I think there is a difference between being a celebrity and being an actor.

Michelle Gomez

I've always been a gurner. I tried to reel it in. You know there was a period when I thought I was going to be a really serious actress, but the gurning... I can't get in control of it. It just runs away with me.

Michelle Gomez

I don't think of myself as an actress. I still think I'm fannying around in my mum's front room.

Michelle Gomez

I'm always slightly worried if I do a film and we're filming it in Luxembourg. I know it's going to go straight DVD.

Michelle Gomez