Maxine Peake

“They always said to me that I needed to be more feminine. I think it's so wrong. Being boisterous doesn't mean you are not feminine.”

“When I was a little girl, there was this unbelievably cool female bus driver who'd work near us. I remember thinking I'd like to be her when I grew up.”

“I'm inspired by films from the early '50s, especially Jean Simmons in 'The Clouded Yellow' - and by vintage swing, psychobilly gigs, sea shanties, and English folklore.”

“I was a tomboy. In my clubbing days, my friend Lucy Davies-Hunt - half-Iranian, looked like Yasmin Le Bon - could wear catsuits, while I was the one in the sweatshirt, jeans, and Fila boots.”

“My kind of work is very intense. The trouble with me is that I completely fling myself into it. I get giddy. I get terrible crushes on jobs.”

“I think you can tell a lot by someone's footwear - cowboy boots would put me off, as would a man in Ugg boots or Crocs.”

“I get easily distracted and become a bit of a giddy giggler. I'm not good at taking myself seriously, and laughing at myself helps ease the pressure.”

“I went to Salford Tech. They did a two-year performing arts course. I went there singing and dancing - I had a terrible time. I turned up in green dungarees and German power boots. I was int...”

“The women I play don't sit in the corner eating lettuce leaves and talking about what designer shoes they have.”

“I've always fancied being a bit of warrior, on a horse swinging a sword around, sorting out the men... Oh yes, that sounds lovely.”

“When we were doing 'Criminal Justice,' they were filming 'Clash of the Titans' nearby and we kept nicking off to their catering tent and going, 'Look what they've got!'”

“You want to go to your deathbed saying, 'I didn't sell out.' But it's a tough business to keep to what you believe in and get through and do well.”

“I'm really unimaginative - once I like something, I fix on it.”

“I think people expect me to dress a bit like Veronica from 'Shameless,' in vest tops and denim skirts.”

“We still have an underclass in this country who are constantly ignored and vilified.”

“We take things at face value, don't we? You form an opinion about something immediately, but you ought to step back a bit. Take in the vista first.”