Creative ideas aren't like Jenga blocks, where they fall apart and you've got to start from scratch, though it can feel that way.
The cars haven't advanced that much since we were kids. When you boil it down, it's still a gas combustion engine.
Of course, it's wonderful to film any period piece - but especially 'Foyle's War' because the art direction is so imaginative and yet at the same time so real. You can open a drawer on set, and even though the camera never sees what's inside, it'll be filled with genuine 1940s documents.
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
To say you want to be a director is to risk sounding obnoxious, pretentious, arrogant, and I think women are more fearful of sounding that way than men are.
When you're making TV, the last thing you want to do is watch TV. It's too much.
Christians, just like anybody else, want to have an impact on their lives. And if you can find music that helps you have an impact on your family, on your faith, on yourself, then that's the kind of music you want to listen to.
In the South, we tell stories. We tell stories if you're in a sales position, if you're in a retail position, you lure your customer by telling a story. You just do.
Here are the values that I stand for: honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values.
I think that no matter how dark a person is, the more you learn about them, the more you understand about their life, the more you can sympathize with them or even root for them.
When you feel that the way you interpret the world is fairly idiosyncratic, you can feel somewhat ostracized and lonely.
I would ask my mother to show me how to walk - and she did show me. That's why I think it's funny when people say, 'Did so-and-so teach you how to walk?' And I always say, 'You must be talking about my mother, because it was my mother who taught me how to walk.'
To become the kind of person you want to become, you've got to have discipline. It's easier to keep to your standards 100 percent of the time versus 98 percent of the time.
I've always believed very, very strongly that the way you treat people is more important than anything, professionally or otherwise.
You're saying 'will it become politically unpopular to have the position I'm having.' If it does, so be it.
I believe that anyone can become better, if you put in the effort.
I'm a big believer that when we put so much into our jobs - and everyone does - you deserve to be get paid for it instead of doing a gig and then having to work in a bar for eight hours.
You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.
Things are only as important as you make them out to be.
If you're a poker player and you show up at a casino at 8 a.m., you're going to be by yourself or with some people that are rocks and just don't give you any action.
I'm certainly not squeamish at all. The countryside makes you very aware of birth and death.
Video is freeing, but also lazier. You have to recreate the love of the moment.
Everyone is friends with each other, and you have to like what's hot. You have to do all these things as if there's no real feelings. As if you can't dislike something any more. We all just have to be buddy-buddy.
You can watch a little bit of war from your nice living room - 30 seconds of what's going on in Syria - and when you've had enough, switch over to some celebrity programme. We live our life through screens and images in this way, and we don't know what is real or fake anymore. It doesn't matter.
You treat a kid with respect and as an adult you talk to them as if they're smart people. But you don't throw at them the trappings of adulthood and you know, the darker stuff.
As marriage goes, I think most people sort of set being - you know getting married as the goal as opposed to being married.
In TV, you're always confused because you legitimately don't know what you're doing the next week.
People don't know how to listen, and it's not their fault. In school, we learn how to read, we learn how to write - but nobody teaches you how to listen.
I feel like every role you take, there's a part of you that obviously feels like you can do it. I don't know if perfect is the right word because I don't believe in perfection. I don't think it exists.
Going out at night and having a fabulous social life takes a lot out of you, and I don't know if I have that much to give, honestly. I would rather give that time to my kids or spend that time reading a book or watching a film. I am selfish and lazy.
I understand now why Hillary Clinton always wore navy blue pantsuits. Remember, for four years? If you have one or two themes, then you have the same shoes, the same bag. Otherwise, it's a nightmare.
D.C.'s a tough place to get love unless you're from D.C. It's like everybody hates you here. The only black person that everyone can agree on is Obama.
My mother told me you marry whoever you want to, as long as you are happy. My parents are very accommodating, and I know they will always support me.
The reason I am a good actress, I think, is because the times when I didn't have a good part... and you think, 'What the hell do you do with it?' You have to figure something out.
When you lose someone whose life was so extraordinary like my dad's, you have two options: You can curl up in a dark corner... or rise above it and dust yourself off and continue with their work. He will always be with me.
Theatre is castigated for wallowing in self-indulgence, but it's curiously unsentimental. You simply have to move on. Everything passes. Something in me likes that.
