Natascha McElhone Quotes

#1. I always think I love work, and I knew early on that I wanted to be an actress. Then I meet people who have truly dedicated their lives to acting, and I realise that I'm so completely in the back seat.

Natascha McElhone

#2. In terms of 'Solaris,' I didn't really think about the religious aspect an awful lot. There's one scene at a dinner party, and it's discussed, but it wasn't an overwhelming theme for me.

Natascha McElhone

#3. I play Nitin Sawhney's 'Letting Go' repeatedly, nonstop. I find it transformative. I'm so glad iPods were invented so I didn't have to drive everyone around me mad with the repetition.

Natascha McElhone

#4. Living with very limited expectations is a much more immediate way of living. You really do just make the best of everything you have. I guess kids have that ability; they wait in joyful anticipation of something rather than that sense of entitlement.

Natascha McElhone

#5. I always keep myself busy. I'm writing. Or I'm creating something. Or I'm doing stuff with the kids. I'm up incredibly early in the morning; I go to bed incredibly late at night.

Natascha McElhone

#6. I happen to find motherhood a very natural state, but I know a lot of other people don't.

Natascha McElhone

#7. I feel awful for women who are trying to raise kids on their own, with zero income and no fathers present - that's single motherhood.

Natascha McElhone

#8. I've always looked old for my age.

Natascha McElhone

#9. I have a massive divide between being a competent human being and being completely hopeless, when it comes to logic.

Natascha McElhone

#10. Growing up, I wasn't allowed dolls, and my brothers weren't allowed guns. I inherited my brothers' clothes. I was never dressed in pink, and they were never dressed in blue; there were none of those rules that people still bizarrely subscribe to.

Natascha McElhone

#11. It's how the '70s were for movies, the 2000s are for TV. I think it's a phenomenal time for TV and to be involved in it.

Natascha McElhone

#12. I grew up with my stepfather in Brighton, but I did spend a lot of time with my natural father, and I was loved by both, so I suppose the advantage of this was that I wasn't bound by one set of experiences; I always had an alternative.

Natascha McElhone

#13. Death is final. No it is not just final, it's worse than that, it's diminishing: the dead continue to decrease, to occupy less space.

Natascha McElhone

#14. I think the difference between finding happiness, or moments of happiness, is how you choose to interpret things. That's a rather shocking responsibility. That we're responsible for our own happiness. It's not those around us.

Natascha McElhone

#15. Scribbling things down is my therapy. I filter later.

Natascha McElhone

#16. I think it's incumbent on actresses to bring something else to the part which isn't in the script.

Natascha McElhone

#17. My stepfather introduced me to The London Library when I was about 18; the clientele has definitely changed since then, but it is still a wonderful oasis in the middle of London.

Natascha McElhone

#18. I'm very different to my mum. I'm not as beautiful as she is, nor - she probably despairs about this - as groomed. I certainly rebelled against her idea of looking well turned-out. I spent several years with a shaved head in jeans and baggy shirts.

Natascha McElhone

#19. I'm not religious. I was as a child, and like lots of people, I suppose, rapidly became very disillusioned with the whole thing. I also feel that organised religion has caused far more problems than it has solved.

Natascha McElhone

#20. My grandparents never understood why my mother Noreen chose such exotic names for her children: Damon and me. My granny insisted on calling my brother Dermot - a good Irish name - until she died; I was just known as 'wee one.'

Natascha McElhone

#21. I was brought up by a Marxist rationalist stepfather, so I don't believe in the supernatural or religion or horoscopes, and the absolute nature of death is quite helpful for me. My husband was there, then he wasn't.

Natascha McElhone

#22. Some actors are like flowers basking in the sun - they love the attention, and the fans get what they want. With me it's different. I know the fans aren't getting what they want. And I'm certainly not getting what I want.

Natascha McElhone