Judi Dench Quotes

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.

God, all those months of seeing Kelsey’s pictures and hearing about her travels, and I had been raging with jealousy. And now it was my turn. I wanted to mind the gap at the tube station and eat fish and chips and try to make the Queen’s guards laugh. I wanted to see Big Ben and the Globe and the London Bridge and Dame Judi Dench. Or Maggie Smith. Or Alan Rickman. Or Sir Ian McKellen. Or anybody famous and British, really. Holy crap. This was really happening. And I wasn’t just a tourist. I was visiting with someone who’d grown up in the city. With my fiancé. Take that, world.

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.

The word ‘play’ is at the heart of what we do as actors – players putting on plays by playwrights in playhouses for playgoers. Play is everything.

it’s not about being childish – that’s different – it’s being childlike, maintaining your sense of wonder.

[Judi Dench, referring to departed colleagues] Where are all those people? Can't believe it. How can it happen? They were so alive and -- so present, so vital. That's why we have to love the now, haven't we? Try not to live in the future. [Brendan O'Hea] Or the past. [JD} Well, you have to live a little in the past, because it's part of us, it's who we are. But don't -dwell- in the past. God, we should make the best of every single second we have.

Ambition, madam, is a great man’s madness,’ says Antonio in Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, a play I first saw at the RSC in 1971 with Judi Dench in the title role. But it’s accepting that you will never achieve your ambition that can really drive you mad.

There's magic to be mined in mistakes.

Just because somebody says something about your character doesn't necessarily mean that it's true. You certainly don't have to come on and live up to those expectations. What someone says can often reveal more about the speaker than the subject.

Love all, trust a few / Do wrong to none.

Judi Dench: ‘Acting is not what you say, it’s what you don’t say.

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

All my favorite actresses are porn stars. And the ones that ain't, I wish they did porn. And that includes Dame Judi Dench.

There’s no right way of performing Shakespeare. And that’s why the plays are still being done.

Tis in my memory locked, / And you yourself shall keep the key of it.

There’s magic to be mined in mistakes.

We’re custodians of the language. Just for a little while.

Adrenaline is the petrol. If there’s no fear, it’s not worth it.

Even her friendship with legendary actress Dame Judi Dench came in handy when a fifth season of The Crown threatened to knock Camilla’s reputation once again. The (mostly accurate) portrayal of her as a chain-smoking adulteress who made Diana’s life hell saw her popularity tank once again.

I suffered through that live-action Cats movie last night trying to score points with the wife. One fart–one–and I lost all my progress.' Fox bit back a smile. "No luck, huh?' 'Had to sleep on the couch,' grumbled the deckhand. 'Don’t take it so hard, man.' Fox shivered, despite the heat. 'That movie could dry up the Pacific.' 'I don't know, there's just something about Judi Dench…' Sanders mused.