Sheila Hancock

As a child, I was deeply religious and went to church every Sunday.

— Sheila Hancock

I wish I could say I was wise and clever, but I'm really not.

— Sheila Hancock

I sometimes buy the Daily Mail and hide it in my Guardian.

— Sheila Hancock

I've never been one of those nanas who pretends to be young.

— Sheila Hancock

Prompting children to create imaginary worlds is hugely important.

— Sheila Hancock

I'm not a good Quaker, really I'm not, but it's a lovely thing to aspire to.

— Sheila Hancock

Acting is a job and it pays the rent. I don't do it for fun.

— Sheila Hancock

Alcoholics are utterly dear one minute, but there is also a blanket hatred with which you cannot reason.

— Sheila Hancock

I don't want my daughters reading about the day I was furious with one of them and said something horrible, that I…

— Sheila Hancock

You have to look for a new way of life. You have to turn your life around. It is up to you…

— Sheila Hancock

I'm actually involved with DigiSmart, a project to get nine-11-year-olds to love books.

— Sheila Hancock

You're never going to get 2,400 people a night for a play. I'm sorry, you really aren't.

— Sheila Hancock

I think when you're coping with grimness perhaps you do get sillier and more escapist in what you want to see at…

— Sheila Hancock

I think why I'm sometimes fearless is because I've found, and this comes with age, if you challenge something your fear goes…

— Sheila Hancock

I have gained no wisdom at all in my old age, but that's the only message I have. It's down to you,…

— Sheila Hancock

Solitude is part of my life, and I don't mind that. I like it. I love it. I don't allow loneliness to…

— Sheila Hancock

When you lose someone you have two choices. You can stay stuck where you are or you can say, 'I am now…

— Sheila Hancock

Around a quarter of cancers eventually spread to the brain. As people live longer, their risk of developing cancer increases; as cancer…

— Sheila Hancock

I used to be the sort of person who'd listen to a taxi driver going on about the-country-going-to-the-dogs-blah-blah, and let him rant…

— Sheila Hancock

Like Pinter and Orton, the writer, Clive Exton, catches the poetry of modern everyday speech, which, whether we like it or not,…

— Sheila Hancock

I always keep my script in the wings - a hangover from my rep days when we had no prompter and, if…

— Sheila Hancock

I used to pray every night: 'Please let me look all right from the front.' I didn't care about real life, but…

— Sheila Hancock

I cannot pass by seeing a child shouted at, and people dropping litter. I'm terrible for intervening. There's nothing worse than busybodies…

— Sheila Hancock

On 'The X Factor,' they deliberately have people on that are awful just to laugh at them.

— Sheila Hancock

I've always used diaries to pour out my feelings at the end of each day, as a sort of therapy.

— Sheila Hancock

I wouldn't dream of giving any human being marks out of 10 on two hours' acquaintance.

— Sheila Hancock

On the whole, I think journalists have been kind about me, but they do make me sound a bit of a dreary…

— Sheila Hancock

I do like Christmas but the build-up is ludicrous. Such a kerfuffle about two meals and a few presents.

— Sheila Hancock

I've been lucky enough to love dearly the people I cared for, but even then there were times when I thought, 'I…

— Sheila Hancock

I'm dirty in an argument; I'll win by any method. But I change my mind all the time and I will admit…

— Sheila Hancock

I was this sort of floozy in 'The Rag Trade,' and 'Mr Digby Darling,' and 'Now, Take My Wife' - the titles…

— Sheila Hancock

There's an incredibly grand attitude towards musicals. I don't understand why my profession is so snooty about it.

— Sheila Hancock

When you've been bereaved, you expect other people to rescue you, but I'm afraid they can't - it's down to you.

— Sheila Hancock

I was struck during the Brexit debate by how little discussion there was about the origins of the concept of a united…

— Sheila Hancock

I was terribly ambitious: I was always thinking why wasn't I in the West End. I really wasted my whole youth.

— Sheila Hancock

I like being on my own, but at times when I don't, I'll phone a friend or the grandchildren.

— Sheila Hancock

In my early music-loving days, I thought Beethoven was a bit bombastic, a bit heroic, a bit, well, big.

— Sheila Hancock

I was always a girl who wanted to please her dad, and he so wanted me to succeed.

— Sheila Hancock

I've got a great relationship with my oldest grandson because we go to political meetings and lectures, which I love.

— Sheila Hancock

When I think about the friends who've died, and sadly there's a lot of mine, there are certain people you can virtually…

— Sheila Hancock