Emma Thompson Quotes (42 Quotes)

I've a problem with the word charity because I think that NGOs, as I prefer calling them, really do take the work of moral and social responsibilities that ought to be taken on by governments.

It is remarkable how many misconceptions there are here about life in the developing world and I think that that knowledge gap has done a lot to contribute to the imbalance quite frankly.

A lot of people in my world - in the acting world - have either lost friends to Aids or live with HIV because its origin in our culture, in New York for instance, was in the gay community.

Every name I think of gets pooh-poohed by my partner, the young Mr. Greg Wise, ... I've sort of given up thinking of names now.

I think if you took charities and NGOs out of the mix, certainly in developing countries, you would find that there would be huge trouble immediately.

It was a hard time but you have to get on with things.You can't wander around miserable.

I don't have technique because I never learnt any.

The gap was so long because it needed to be. It took that time - that's the time it took,

The Catholic Church - it's so difficult because I don't want say anything offensive but it makes me very angry that religious leaders from this faith have tried to respond negatively to sexual education and to the promotion of condom use.

My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman.

My worst quality is impatience.

I think the point about ActionAid is what it's asking people to do is engage with poor people in developing countries and understand what their lives are like and understand how the way we live our lives impacts on theirs.

If you don't want women to do whatever they need to do then you must provide them with food, you must provide them with shelter and their basic human rights.

There is a lot of interest in post office art today, I think people are appreciating what we have, ... We're excited and starting to look up to see what's there, and that is my purpose.

I think it would be terrible if what children come away (with) from this movie was that you've always got to behave. No Not so

They were like, 'You can't have that. It's too expensive.' I was like, 'OK, 29.' Then I slowly went down to 17, 13, 11, nine. I said, 'I'm not going any less than nine. It's not going to make sense and there's not going to be enough kids.' But then I realized I could not chart nine kids in an hour and a half.

I would say to people, for heaven's sake, if you're going to have kids you've got to put the work and the time into it.

The trouble is it's very difficult to pin-point the most important thing because Aids affects everyone in different levels of society, differently and you have to respond to it differently.

Indeed - judicious, consistent parenting is a dream of mine. No judgements, learning space and listening carefully are my goals.

I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch.

I was in Los Angeles making 'Dead Again' and the producer, Lindsay Doran , asked me if I'd be interested in adapting this book, ... Austen is my favorite author and I thought, 'Well, of course, I'd be very interested, but I don't know how. I don't know where to start, A, writing a screenplay and B, sort of adapting it from a great novel.

I hate the way market forces try to separate us out in to the appropriate demographic - basically in order to sell us things. We need to find stories that we can enjoy together, not separately.

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

What was important was trying to create something that families could watch together and enjoy together.

Parents always think it's the kids' fault. If they're naughty, it's the kids' fault. Not true Children generally are not naughty for no reason.

The way, I think, anything has ever really changed on this planet is through large groups of very ordinary people saying something finally.

But certainly in Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa, people don't really talk about sex and certainly religious leaders - some of them - up to now have been very unwilling to accept, for instance, the promotion of condom use.

The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.

If you've got to my age, you've probably had your heart broken many times. So it's not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.

I think that my work is my attempt, I suppose, is to try and become a piece of connective tissue. I'm trying to communicate with people here and in America - in rich countries - about what I see on the ground in badly affected areas.

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

It took them longer to get me dolled up for Elinor in Sense And Sensibility because it took so long to do the hair.

We belabour, I think, under a very heavy crust of consumerism really.

Having reached 40 this year, if they were going to find someone to play opposite me they'd have to exhume him.

I have had lots of friends who've been affected by Aids and a very good friend of mine, Oscar Moore, died of Aids and I was with him in his last year quite a bit. And of course he was a man living in a very rich culture with a wealthy family who was able to afford health care.

Children are the most wonderful audiences. What's struck me most is that that they watch it so silently, until the end when they shriek and shout and clap.

We need men and women to sit down and talk to each other about sex honestly and openly. That would help us fight Aids so immediately. But our lack of communication is hugely problematic.

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?

Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder.

Tell him I mind having to look pretty, that's what I mind, because it is so much more of an effort.

I don't think people understand that being poor means you have to work from dawn until dusk just to survive through the day. I think there's some notion that poor people lie about all day not doing anything.