Top 102 Quotes & Sayings by Sarah Lancashire
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British actress Sarah Lancashire.
Last updated on November 8, 2024.
The writing is only ever the attractive thing about a part. And also if all the elements within the writing come together - the character and the structure and the narrative - if they are all there then you become excited.
My father was a TV scriptwriter. He would perform his dialogue out loud, while my mum transcribed it at the typewriter. So I grew up thinking that plucking characters out of the air was an extremely normal way to behave.
I do have a slightly rebellious streak in me, I'm afraid.
I suppose trying not to fancy Richard Gere - that's been quite hard!
Being an actor can be a cruel experience because there is no cooling-down period. You can be involved in something that's incredibly intense, but then it's a wrap and you've finished and you go home. I find it difficult to complete a job and then return to reality and find my healthy place.
Love is very complicated and it's never black and white, as I'm sure we all know in our lives.
Two of the best roles I've ever had have happened in my late 40s.
The work I like to do is the work I'm most afraid of.
I won't say I'll never go back to a soap because an actor's life is so precarious. You can have the most wonderful patch where everyone wants to work with you, and in the blink of an eye the phone won't ring for a month, even a year.
Sometimes it's necessary for soaps to hang on to an audience by sensationalizing, but it's a beast I don't understand any more, an art form that has fostered extraordinary talent. It's a great arena to learn your craft before you move on.
I have to work at my own speed.
I'm driven by fear.
Soaps are a double-edged sword. There can be prejudice from some writers and producers who feel you will lower the currency of their work if you've been in one. You have to rise above such ludicrous prejudice.
My twenties were a write-off.
I would never condone anything which I thought was salacious, titillating, or gratuitous.
It was easier to act, in a way, than to be myself. Somehow I just felt I was in the right place.
I need to grow as an actor. The wonderful thing is you never stop learning, and as my only interest is trying to perfect what I do, it's wonderful because I'll never succeed, so I'll have to keep working.
Watching your own work doesn't get any easier.
I don't watch anything I'm in. I'm too critical.
I can tell very early on, reading a script, within six or seven pages, whether I'm looking at real people, and whether I can see and hear real people.
It started at 49 with 'Tango in Halifax' and then 'Happy Valley.' I can't complain at a time when most actors are disappearing. I seem to have become very visible.
'Tango' is very much an ensemble piece and I was devastated when I read the script.
An 'Ordinary Woman' is the beautiful and achingly poignant portrait of Gwen, a complex and troubled woman in her middle years.
You don't always realize the impact you have on people's lives. You just think 'I'm an actor, I don't think I'm doing anything particularly important in life' and then you suddenly realize that actually for a fleeting moment you do make a difference to somebody's life - it has an impact.
To be asked to perform a new 'Talking Head' was beyond any expectation. The matchless brilliance of Alan Bennett's words coupled with the extraordinary wisdom of Nick Hytner's direction made this a thrilling and quite simply unforgettable experience, and I'm enormously grateful.
During a performance of 'Blood Brothers' in 1990, I forgot to sing. I was so moved by what my co-star Kiki Dee was doing, that I completely missed my cue.
It's wonderful when you happen across it as an actor, finding a young actor that is literally just starting out and you understand that to them the craft is the most important aspect of the job.
I'm not terribly good at being around work I don't care about!
Anyone who has to be accountable in a time when resources are shrinking, where transparency is necessary, where the pressures are greater, is going to find that it takes a toll.
I never feel proud of anything I do really.
Most of the career choices I've made have been because of my family.
It's too easy to underestimate your audience. But it's not rocket science: bad plays don't get people on seats; good plays do.
Working on 'The Paradise' is like putting on a comfy overcoat.
I think all writers have a style, a particular voice and rhythm that you have to find.
The Barbara Hepworth museum in St. Ives is fascinating. Her achievements were astonishing.
I am possibly the biggest 'Downton' fan you can ever meet.
I don't like comparing projects. I find it too difficult because I can't objectively look at a piece when I'm so subjectively involved it.
I truly believe that love is love and gender is immaterial.
It's down to the actors to show the writers the potential of the character.
Acting is a subtle combination of hiding and revealing yourself, and as I'm not an extrovert, this is painful for me.
I'm straight, but it's immaterial what your sexuality is. Isn't it really just about being a fulfilled human being?
Being in the public eye makes you frightened to talk openly about things - which is precisely why you should. You can really make a difference and open up subjects that are taboo.
Love is love. It doesn't matter about sexuality, it's just about how you feel towards somebody else and being good and honest with them.
I love swing, jazz, blues, standards. I love the American songbook, Gershwin, Berlin. It's all that. So I'm born in the wrong era and I just don't fit into the 21st century at all.
When I'm working in theatre I never go to the bar with the other actors; I go home and think about what I did wrong.
I own a copy of the original 'Talking Heads' by Alan Bennett, which I purchased many years ago shortly after they were first broadcast. It's been lovingly well-thumbed over the years. They are magnificent. A masterpiece.
When you receive a script and it leaps out at you and it's breathing with its own heartbeat - I suppose when you read something like that it's not a choice of whether you do it or don't. It feels like it chooses you, so you just do it.
'Happy Valley' is an extraordinary piece and it was not necessarily about Catherine but her part in the narrative.
Celebrity and actor are two completely different professions, and I don't believe that they mix if you want to maintain any sort of credibility.
I think Jack Thorne is an exceptional writer.
If someone was walking round in a T-shirt with Sarah Lancashire on it, I'd find that very disturbing.
I don't like talking about me. I only speak when I have something to say and won't share my personality.
Age affects us all in the workplace. We all get a little less appealing as we get older, unfortunately.
'MotherFatherSon' was just an extraordinary read and I wanted to be a part of it.
In my early days depression did inhibit me because I was too debilitated and terrified to tell anyone why I couldn't get on a train from Manchester for auditions in London.
There's some truth that roles for older women are harder to come by, but it's wrong for actors to monopolise the ageist thing.
I think women have not been terribly kind to other women for a very long time.
Actors are bloody marvelous at hiding.
I've learnt that it's possible to be as anonymous as you want. It's a choice, and I've become very, very good at being anonymous.
You start out with scripts pre-written, with no specific actor in mind, so you've got to build a character on top of that foundation. It's not just lifting words off the page, it's constructing a history around them as well.
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