306 Quotes by Helen Mirren

You can’t control how other people see you or think of you. But you have to be comfortable with that.

I believe that if you want to go make your mark on the world you’ve got to go out and do it. Don’t be shy, be adventurous.

I’d like to see a much more open Monarchy, myself. I used to think they were completely useless and we should get rid of them. I don’t necessarily feel that way anymore. I’m still ambivalent, I still loathe the British class system, and the Royal family are the apex of the British class system.

I’ll tell you what me scares me is plastic. Plastic bags and plastic bottles and these things. Why does my water have to be in a bloody plastic bottle? The landfill and the ocean. And I don’t know, I’m just terrified with the proliferation of plastic.

I’m not a communist, of course. But I do think that everything is down to economics. Capitalism doesn’t change.

When you’re young, you wonder what all these old people are droning on about, trying to impart their wisdom. It’s not relevant to you because being young is such a specific thing. Thank God for that. Thank God for the young people who go out and demonstrate against rampant capitalism or whatever.

I’m a would-be rebel. The good girl who’d like to be a bad one.

Women are always self-effacing and self-denying. There’s a term that enrages me, and I always used to swear that I’d never play characters described that way. The term is “long-suffering.”

I don’t know who I am. But I do know who I’m not. I have occasionally tried playing people I’m definitely not, and that wasn’t a very pleasant experience.