Dench Quotes

#1. Judi Dench is incredible. She takes acting to another level. She is a thorough professional. She is always smiling and cheerful. She painstakingly rehearses with co-stars and allows you to be natural.

Tena Desae

#2. I do admire Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, but I'm a philistine. I like the good life too much; I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

Anthony Hopkins

#3. Alan Bennett and Judi Dench are amazingly talented people who don't let you down when you meet them.

Alan Titchmarsh

#4. Judi Dench should be ashamed of herself for being so talented and working so much.

Judy Parfitt

#5. Judi Dench and Ian McKellen taught me how to work hard and respect the theatre.

Francesca Annis

#6. I want to end up like Judi Dench. I want to have nice consistent work, doing lovely things, no matter how big or small they might be. I'd like to turn into a wise old thing.

Kate Winslet

#7. It's a treat and daunting to be directing someone like Judi Dench, who's made more films than I'll ever make in my lifetime.

Cary Fukunaga

#8. When I said there was only one Judy Dench, I was, of course, referring to myself.

Carl Barat

#9. I have this thing for British women. I love Judi Dench. I love Helen Mirren. I love these women, and I definitely do have big girl crushes on them.

Jennifer Nettles

#10. There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.

Daniel Craig

#11. I am not interested in being a Barbie doll and turning myself into a sausage for the next 20 years. I want to follow actresses like Helen Mirren and Judi Dench who have lines on their faces and aren't afraid of playing their age.

Kim Cattrall

#12. If I am able to carry on modeling, I'll be very happy to, but my passion is definitely in music and acting. I would love to do what Meryl Streep is doing. Her or Judi Dench, or maybe Charlize Theron as well.

Cara Delevingne

#13. I tried to find a rhythm, and I stopped comparing myself to anybody else. One of the great phrases for me is "Compare and despair." If I compare myself to Kate Middleton or Dame Judi Dench, I'm going to come out at the bottom and be sad.

Jamie Lee Curtis

#14. When you're a young English person who wants to be an actress and you have dreams, you dream of being Vanessa Redgrave or Judi Dench.

Janet McTeer

#15. I regard myself as an actress but, obviously, not in the Dame Judi Dench league. That isn't a problem because I don't think we are ever likely to be up for the same part!

Kelly Brook

#16. A new adaptation of Jane Eyre came out every year, and every year it was exactly the same. An unknown actress would play Jane, and she was usually prettier than she should have been. A very handsome, very brooding, very 'ooh-la-la' man would play Rochester, and Judi Dench would play everyone else.

Catherine Lowell

#17. I admire the work of brilliant actresses such as Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren, who have had such varied careers. They have never stopped working, and they are as great today as they ever were.

Cate Blanchett

#18. Look at Judi Dench, who's brilliant in whatever bloody job she does.

Imelda Staunton

#19. I have never had anything done to my face because then you end up looking as they all do in America. Look at Judi Dench: she would never be as good if she had had work done.

Joanna Lumley

#20. I would like to be where Diana Rigg or Judi Dench is, but I expect it is as good as it is going to get.

Kate O'Mara

#21. I have always wanted to work with Judy Dench, and that hasn't happened yet, so that would be fun.

Douglas Booth

#22. You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.

Alan Cumming

#23. 'Philomena' was even better than I had expected. I was so pleased to see the evil Irish nuns thoroughly exposed, and I thought Judi Dench gave a flawless performance, as did everybody else.

Claire Tomalin

#24. Judi Dench has always been the benchmark for me. Everything I have seen her do is incredible. I also really admire Cate Blanchett. In terms of people I have worked with, there is no one more admirable than Hugh Jackman, for his spirit, energy, generosity and hard work.

Laura Donnelly

#25. I want to do something where I play Judi Dench's younger sister or daughter.

Dawn French

#26. I worked with Judi Dench in Cranford. She's not at all starry, she's very easy and funny to be around, but I had such an enormous respect and regard for her before I met her that I was quite starstruck.

Martin Shaw

#27. I love Kate Winslet, Rachel Weisz, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench as well. They're all wonderful and they're very inspiring.

Zoe Tapper

#28. There is more for women in terms of character roles now. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith have constantly changed over the years and challenged themselves with different roles. That's impressive.

Imogen Poots

#29. I didn't get into acting to have a moment, I got into it because of people who've inspired me, like Judi Dench, Holly Hunter, and Jodie Foster.

Amy Adams

#30. Since Michael died I think I've worked constantly. Friends and colleagues are very sustaining. They're the people who get you through it ... It's no good to be on your own.

Judi Dench

#31. I was in Yorkshire. We were a family of five and I used to be sent sometimes to get the rations for the week and I was easily able to carry them back. It was like one egg and a tiny bit of tea.

Judi Dench

#32. I have no control over a film. I don't know what will be left on the cutting floor.

Judi Dench

#33. I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it's like a template; I'll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I'm all right.

Judi Dench

#34. One of the benefits of being a mature well-educated woman is that you're not afraid of expletives. And you have no fear to put a fool in his place. That's the power of language and experience. You can learn a lot from Shakespeare.

Judi Dench

#35. It was good to learn so early. They're not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.

Judi Dench

#36. When we are together, there is nothing we cannot achieve', which is something Michael used to say.

Judi Dench

#37. I like to push myself beyond the limit every now and again.

Judi Dench

#38. I would hate people to think bossy is all I can do.

Judi Dench

#39. Sometimes nudity is gratuitous. We just live in a society where everything goes.

Judi Dench

#40. I don't really want to retire. I intend to go on working as long as I can because I still have a huge amount of energy.

Judi Dench

#41. I wanted to be a set designer when I was young.

Judi Dench

#42. Children have become disengaged from nature and we need to reintroduce them to the pleasure that it brings. If we do that they will care for it. Through the simple act of planting a tree we can open their eyes to nature's beauty.

Judi Dench

#43. There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it.

Judi Dench

#44. It's incredibly moving to hear some of our greatest actors performing Shakespeare.

Judi Dench

#45. It actually was a complete departure having a woman playing M. I didn't realize at the time that it would be so noticed.

Judi Dench

#46. There's nothing good about being my age.

Judi Dench

#47. I started off as a theatre designer, and by some extraordinary circumstance I saw something in Stratford-upon-Avon, and realized that that's the kind of design I want, but also that that's the kind of designer I'll never be.

Judi Dench

#48. Don't think I am going to let Bob Hoskins take all his clothes off and me not take a look? I just had a quick look up and down, like you would.

Judi Dench

#49. Never fall out of love with life

Judi Dench

#50. I've got what my ma had, macular degeneration, which you get when you get old.

Judi Dench

#51. I would like to work with Jack Nicholson, before it's too late.

Judi Dench

#52. My husband was actually very keen that I would become a Bond girl.

Judi Dench

#53. The more I do, the more frightened I get. But that is essential. Otherwise why would I go on doing it?

Judi Dench

#54. I just feel incredibly lucky to be employed when there are so many actors and actresses who are not employed. That's why, you know, I sometimes feel desperate, in case I'm not going to be cast again.

Judi Dench

#55. Everything, every part that you approach has to be somehow rooted in yourself. You have to somehow root everything so that it's not just words coming out of you.

Judi Dench

#56. I don't think that care homes are all rotten old places that ought to be shut down.

Judi Dench

#57. Frankly, I never had any intense desire to go to India. I know that sounds a bit strange, but it just never was someplace I had a burning desire to visit.

Judi Dench

#58. It takes courage to recognize the real as opposed to the convenient.

Judi Dench

#59. I get sillier as I get older, so I don't know what wisdom means. I can only pass on something that I've been acquainted with and let whomever it is pick the bones out of it

Judi Dench

#60. Anything that we can do to improve the lives of elderly people is welcome so far as I am concerned.

Judi Dench

#61. Filming is completely - was totally new to me ... I had a movie career which wasn't supposed to be, so I couldn't be more thrilled. For those who work, parts seem to get more interesting.

Judi Dench

#62. I trained as a designer, so I'm always terribly keen about what I'm going to look like.

Judi Dench

#63. Michael died five years ago this January, and the first thing that really struck me about the script was the part about her peeling off from the funeral and just getting into a rowboat and having a real kind of cry where nobody was.

Judi Dench

#64. This is just the loveliest news. I'm so happy for everybody involved, and so proud to have been part of the wonderful experience that Philomena has been.

Judi Dench

#65. It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.

Judi Dench

#66. It is true that there are few plays of Shakespeare that I haven't done.

Judi Dench

#67. I'm very conscious that I'm in the minority in that I love what I do. How big is the number of people who are running to work to do a job that they like? And how lucky to be employed at it - how incredibly lucky.

Judi Dench

#68. The difficulty with any sort of esteem is that more is expected of you.

Judi Dench

#69. There are very few things that surprise me.

Judi Dench

#70. The need for a global structure of control in the form of a world environment court is now more urgent than ever before.

Judi Dench

#71. I can't read scripts any more because of the trouble with my eyes.

Judi Dench

#72. Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.

Judi Dench

#73. I have a completely new knee. It's brilliant. I am not feeling my age at all. I feel about 43, a willowy blonde 43 years old with long legs.

Judi Dench

#74. Because, you know, I can't work a bicycle pump.

Judi Dench

#75. I felt quite a responsibility when I played Elizabeth I but nobody here remembers her! And then I felt a responsibility when I played Queen Victoria but not many people remember her.

Judi Dench

#76. I am so thrilled to be nominated for something I loved working on every single day.

Judi Dench

#77. I've figured out what to do so far, but it's always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting - whoosh! in your face. That's why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.

Judi Dench

#78. I love being part of a company, and telling a story.

Judi Dench

#79. I think you've got to have your feet planted firmly on the ground, especially in this business, and you must not believe things that are said or written about you, because everything gets out of proportion one way or the other.

Judi Dench

#80. I'm always fearful. ... Fear generates in you a huge energy. You can use it. When I feel that mounting fear, I think, 'Oh, yes, there it is!' It's like petrol.

Judi Dench

#81. I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself - that is the best combination.

Judi Dench

#82. The theater is the thing I love doing most.

Judi Dench

#83. We know about the issue of children being sold and adopted and taken away but what is so extraordinary is how these two people come through something like - how both of them do, in actual fact. I think that she's one of the most considerable people I've ever met, Philomena.

Judi Dench

#84. In contrast, the control you have in a theatre is very attractive to me.

Judi Dench

#85. Work certainly does help fill a void.

Judi Dench

#86. I feel with this film that as long as we tell Philomena's story and as long as we're true to her, which Jeff and Steve have already done by writing the story ... we must not sell her short;. She's a most remarkable woman and all my concern was that we must be absolutely true to her story.

Judi Dench

#87. I'd rather do a part because I want to, not because great things are expected of me.

Judi Dench

#88. Actually, what I miss are people corpsing on stage.

Judi Dench

#89. Seriously, though, I think I never ceased to be grateful of the fact that I am able to do a job that I really love - I never got over that.

Judi Dench

#90. In the theatre you can change things ever so slightly; it's an organic thing. Whereas in film you only have that chance on the day, and you have no control over it at all.

Judi Dench

#91. I played Iris Murdoch, who had not long died, and I felt the responsibility very heavy on my shoulders.

Judi Dench

#92. And then it was working with Bob Hoskins, who I had never worked with before - except radio. It was like being given a wonderful meal - full of the things you love most.

Judi Dench

#93. Most things don't work out as expected, but what happens instead often turns out to be the good stuff.

Judi Dench

#94. I need to learn every day.

Judi Dench

#95. Having a daughter and a grandson, I certainly could relate to the fact that this child, who you simply dote on, being taken away from you at an early age, and every single kind of emotion you would have to go through.

Judi Dench

#96. I've always loved painting, although I never show anyone what I've done. Mainly because I don't do it well. But it's like a form of visual diary for me. A way of fixing things in my mind.

Judi Dench

#97. I don't think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find your own way through it.

Judi Dench

#98. Every experience that you experience yourself you use, because that's our craft.

Judi Dench

#99. The Lord Chamberlin was censoring scripts when I first came into the theater.

Judi Dench

#100. People think you know beforehand when you win an Oscar - I can assure you you don't.

Judi Dench