E M M A   S A I D   This is a scandal? Monica Lewinsky? If there was a scandal, couldn't he have been with a nun or something really venal like that? It's all so bizarre to me. I long for the J. Edgar Hoover days. Let's find a man dressing in women's clothes. Something really weird. -Emma about Bill Clintons relationship with Monica Lewinsky- As far as I can see, from Sharon Stone's love scene in "Basic Instinct", they molded her body out of tough Plasticine. She was shagging Michael Douglas like a donkey, and not an inch moved. If that had been me, there would have been things flying around hitting me in the eye. - About Sharon Stone's appearance in Basic Instint, a role which Emma turned down- Luckily I'm not known as a beauty, even if I do photograph all sort of glammy. If you asked people 'Do you think she's beautiful, do you think she's sexy' I think 99.9 percent would say 'Not particular, but she's a good actress and she's intelligent' -Emma on her looks- Acting is the ultimate luxury. This is one of the luckiest things you could probably doing.'Hard' is going down a bloody coalmine or living in Somalia or in a war zone. That's hard! -Emma about acting- I've thought long and hard about each speech and I've tried to make them short and yet say something and also express genuine gratitude. -Emma about accaptance speeches- I do love England. I love the people. Even if they're not friendly, at least they're funny. -Emma about England- There are still some woman magazines that run fantastic articles, but if you see one more article about fucking diets, you think, I'm just going to throw me of a fucking bridge, because is this all we think about? -Emma about women mags- I don't go round "Sainsbury's" because it lights this terrible consumer fire in me. I've gone in for a pint of milk and a packer of spaghetti and I've come out with half the shop. -Emma about shopping- Marriages stop. Marriages change. People are always saying a marriage 'failed". It's such a negative way of putting it. -Emma about marriage- Margaret's kinder and mmore patient than me, but its one of those parts that make you think I understand this person, I won't have to shift very far to inhabit her. -Emma about her Howards End character Margaret Schlegel- I was brought up by very witty people who wer dealing with quite difficult things - disease and death. We don't quite know how to behave anymore. I was raised to always stand up when someone entered a room. I would never start an interview without shaking hands and looking the person in the eye. A lot of social rules are disapearing and I sometimes yearn for structure. -Emma about her childhood- 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. -Emma on, er, who she likes- I'll write roles for women - good female roles. Later on I'll have lived a bit more I might have something to offer up. -Emma about being a screenwriter- I don't know wheter I would have liked myself as a child. I always feel I was deeply puchable, overweight with a pait. I went to the state primary down the road and suffered at school. I was fortunate in having a posh accent, I was simply disliked. Then I changed my voice, learned how to swear, and it was alright. -Emma about herself as a child- I love all kinds of things. Working, reading, cooking a meal. I like watching 'Star Wars'. I'm a perfectly normal human being. -Emma about what she likes to do- I think of myself as sexual in a human way, but not as a kind of bombshell. I think the sexuality I represent is less do do with fantasy. I tend to represend ordinary women. -Emma about the kind of woman she is- I place a high moral value on the way people behave. I find it repellent to have a lot, and to behave with anything other than courtesy in the old sense of the word -- politeness of the heart, a gentleness of the spirit. Art is a moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television. Laughter is a celebration of all our failings, that recognition that we are human. That's what clowns are for. That's why they are important. And that's definitivly what I am Acting is the ultimate luxury. This is one of the luckiest things you could probably doing. 'Hard' is going down a bloody coalmine or living in Somalia or in a war zone. That's hard! Marriages stop. Marriages change. People are always saying a marriage 'failed". It's such a negative way of putting it. 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. I think of myself as sexual in a human way, but not as a kind of bombshell. I think the sexuality I represent is less do do with fantasy. I tend to represent ordinary women. <-rewind