I said ‘It can’t go on’ and he said ‘No, it can’t.’ Honestly, I don’t think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him. — Maggie Smith

One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one’s still acting. — Maggie Smith

I’m far, far, far from that. But of course, that’s one of the joys of acting is that you can move up in the world, even if–you know, in the characters that you’re playing, even if you don’t. — Maggie Smith

The performances you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage. — Maggie Smith

The thing is, often press people ask questions that are so personal that even your nearest and dearest wouldn’t ask them. — Maggie Smith

I’m so moved to hear Celia Johnson again, so lovely. — Maggie Smith

I think everybody who was in it thought they were all going to be Eartha Kitt or be big stars. That didn’t happen, but it was a wake–up call to have one’s first professional job on Broadway, I must say. — Maggie Smith

Some people say you have to fight cancer. But it was fighting me. The cure was worse than the disease, and it left me totally exhausted and depressed. I just hid myself away in my daughter–in–law’s flat. — Maggie Smith

It is not your job to make other people comfortable with who you are. — Maggie Smith

Stop searching yourself trying to understand why someone else treated you the way they did. The answer is not inside you; it’s inside them, out of reach. — Maggie Smith

A lot of writing about being a mother is not so much writing about the kids themselves. They become placeholders for the shift that happens when you’re suddenly in charge of other people. — Maggie Smith

When you get into the granny era, you’re lucky to get anything. — Maggie Smith

An actor is somebody who communicates someone else’s words and emotions to an audience. It’s not me. It’s what writers want me to be. — Maggie Smith

There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness. — Maggie Smith

I do love comedy, and when it’s a comedy moment and you can make people laugh, of course it is wonderful. — Maggie Smith

It’s true I don’t tolerate fools but then they don’t tolerate me, so I am spiky. Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies. — Maggie Smith

There were male colleges, and there were very few female colleges. — Maggie Smith

When I started acting almost 50 years ago, it wasn’t about fame. It was about acting. — Maggie Smith

We can’t escape the shadow, so the best thing we can do is notice the light and be open to it. — Maggie Smith

It’s easy to get bogged down in bad news. — Maggie Smith

I like the ephemeral thing about theatre, every performance is like a ghost–it’s there and then it’s gone. — Maggie Smith

I wanted to be a serious actress, but of course that didn’t really happen. — Maggie Smith

It seems to me there is a change in what audiences want to see. I can only hope that’s correct, because there’s an awful lot of people of my age around now and we outnumber the others. — Maggie Smith

It was–it’s always very nice to be somebody rather grand. — Maggie Smith

My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon–holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing. — Maggie Smith

I’m not my mother. And so I’m not raising my kids in the same way. I don’t respond in the same way. We don’t spend our days in the same way because I don’t necessarily enjoy the same things she likes to do. — Maggie Smith

I’m hopeless–all I know is that time is going past so fast. — Maggie Smith

There’s this wonderful first assistant and he’ll be saying, ‘Now Harry goes down among the dragons.’ You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you’re sunk. — Maggie Smith

I mean, (my character) certaInly can’t keep goIng. — Maggie Smith

Try not to cry too much because it can be pretty heart–breaking and pretty hard. — Maggie Smith

I like being outside and working with the elements. The elemental aspects of it. The physicality of it. — Maggie Smith

I loved Robert Altman, so gentle yet naughty! And Julian Fellowes writes so beautifully. — Maggie Smith

Old people are scary. And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary. — Maggie Smith

They came together, they loved and they married. In innocence, and never dreaming how courageous they were, they started a new life together and a new generation of their own. — Betty Smith

I’d done ‘Gosford Park,’ a film that Julian Fellowes had written that Robert Altman directed. — Maggie Smith

Now my wandering days are over. It will be bliss to settle down. Bliss. There’s a word, now. Bliss to love and to be loved. — Betty Smith

The drama school was in Oxford–and it’s funny to think of it, but in those days when I started out the University was nearly all male. And they certainly weren’t mixed. — Maggie Smith

There was nobody in the family who had ever done anything like that before. My brothers–I had two brothers. They were twins. They both became architects. They were both six years older. — Maggie Smith

Sort of what you do in drama school when asked to play something way out of your reach. Anyway, we used to laugh a lot about that. I used to say I’m not going to act old, Penelope. I’ll just be myself. — Maggie Smith

Where you get people who want to take a picture of you or take a picture of them with you. — Maggie Smith

Don’t be defeatist, dear, it’s very middle class. — Maggie Smith

Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point. — Maggie Smith