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I had a kind of Dickensian childhood.

When I was 14 or 15, our teacher introduced us to Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities.' It was just for entertainment - we read it aloud - and all of a sudden it became a treasure.

My neighborhood in South London was very Dickensian.

I was enamored with Charles Dickens as a kid, and his names blew me away.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn't be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.

I didn't want to be stuck in Dickens period dramas because then I would never know if I was any good.

I was brought up on Dickens. I remember reading 'Bleak House' but, coming back to it, I didn't remember much about it apart from a few characters.

I was terribly upset not to be in 'Dickensian,' so I pretend to look down on it. The part I should have played, Mrs. Gamp, is done brilliantly by Pauline Collins, but I entered this world for no other reason than to play that part.

The whole world knows Dickens, his London and his characters.