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 More Quotes by Maggie Smith More Quotes From 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 ephemeral theatre gone People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all. Maggie Smith get-better different people We can't escape the shadow, so the best thing we can do is notice the light and be open to it. Maggie Smith shadow I tend to head for what's amusing because a lot of things aren't happy. But usually you can find a funny side to practically anything. Maggie Smith maggie amusing sides There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that. Maggie Smith invisible actors kind 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 emotion actors want Little girls, I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the crème de la crème. Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life. Maggie Smith girl age giving I don't think films about elderly people have been made very much. I think of Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy. But they always seem to be fairly successful, so it's a bit baffling as to why everybody has to be treated as if they were five-years-old. Maggie Smith elderly successful thinking One went to school, one wanted to act, one started to act, and one's still acting. Maggie Smith acting wanted school I am just surprised to be doing anything at my age actually. When you think of where I am now and where I've come from, I am very pleased and very grateful to be standing up and delivering Julian's great lines. Maggie Smith grateful age thinking When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything. Maggie Smith granny eras lucky I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything. Maggie Smith wind years thinking 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 maggie elderly fool Don't be defeatist, dear, it's very middle class. Maggie Smith maggie middle class I know there is something out there and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad. Maggie Smith knows believe people 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 honest goes-on thinking Theres a difference between solitude and loneliness Maggie Smith differences solitude loneliness Alan Rickman was such a terrific actor, and that was such a terrific character that he played. And it was a joy to be with him. We used to laugh together because we ran out of reaction shots. They were always - when everything had been done and the children were finished, they would turn the camera around and we'd have to do various reaction shots of amazement or sadness and things. We used to say we'd got to about number 200-and-something and we'd run out of knowing what to do when the camera came around on us. But he was a joy. Maggie Smith running character children 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 joy character moving The chemotherapy was very peculiar, something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself, a very nasty thing. I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody. I wouldn't have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places? Maggie Smith cancer peculiar want
