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Politics demands certain skills honed by experience, just as journalism does, just as acting does.

Politics is a place of humble hopes and strangely modest requirements, where all are good who are not criminal and all are wise who are not ridiculously otherwise.

If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise.

It takes heart to be in political life.

Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.

I don't consider myself specifically political, you know? I think of working as an actor as being a human thing. The concerns I have that fall into politics are human concerns.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

I have run across characters in my political career that have that singular focus of being someone, being in a position of power.

Politics is terrifying, very masculine, and not particularly encouraging to young blonde women - as a career, that is - and it was only when I was working in parliament that I thought to myself, 'Well, this is a tough industry; can an acting career be any more intimidating?' and I applied to drama school.

Talent is really important in politics, but experience is also really important.