Top 90 Emma Thompson Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “I’ve realized that in all the great stories, even if there’s a happily-ever-after ending, there’s something sad.”

— Emma Thompson

52. “I have a lot of people to thank but they’re none of them here so I’m not going to bother.”

— Emma Thompson

53. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

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

— Emma Thompson

55. “Lindsay Doran goes round the table and introduces everyone – making it clear that I am present in the capacity of writer rather than actress, therefore no one has to be too nice to me.”

— Emma Thompson

56. “You can’t be a great mum and work the whole time necessarily; those two things aren’t ideal. We have an awful lot to work on and to debate about in relation to our working lives, because it isn’t working for a lot of people, particularly for a lot of women.”

— Emma Thompson

57. “Sometimes I get to put on posh frocks and be Madam Glamour, the vendor of my wares. My lovely friend Kath, a stylist, puts me into things I’d never dream of. But my real life is very different. It’s very, very home-based – an intense domestic life, that’s the core of everything.”

— Emma Thompson

58. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

59. “When husbands and fathers leave, their wives and daughters tend to value themselves less as a result.”

— Emma Thompson

60. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

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

— Emma Thompson

62. “The flashbacks are parallel for me. You experience two storylines at the same time, and I’m not switching from one time to another.”

— Emma Thompson

63. “I firmly believe there are books whose greatness actually enable you to live.”

— Emma Thompson

64. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

65. “Jane reminds us that God is in his heaven, the monarch on his throne and the pelvis firmly beneath the ribcage. Apparently rock and roll liberated the pelvis and it hasn’t been the same since.”

— Emma Thompson

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

— Emma Thompson

67. “I’ve never been on the cover of Empire. I’m very bitter. I’ve got an award but now I feel sad and cross.”

— Emma Thompson

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

— Emma Thompson

69. “The insanity of consumption bothers me. Talk about the opiate of the masses. It ain’t religion anymore. It’s stuff.”

— Emma Thompson

70. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

71. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

72. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

73. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

74. “Well, I met Sandy Bullock at an awards thing a couple years ago, and she said to me, ‘If I were gay, you’d be the one.’ and I said, ‘I’m there!’”

— Emma Thompson

75. “Sometimes you’ll have some things, and sometimes you’ll have other things. And you do not need it all at once; it’s not good for you.”

— Emma Thompson

76. “I don’t mean being famous is a perk, because one knows that it’s not necessarily a perk, but there are certain perks to being well-known and respected in one’s field. Public perks. Like, I don’t know, general friendliness and willingness to please, just to point out two.”

— Emma Thompson

77. “Kissing Hugh was lovely. Glad I invented it. Can’t rely on Austen for a snog, that’s for sure.”

— Emma Thompson

78. “It’s about time a 55-year-old British woman is the heroine of an action movie. I may have to write it.”

— Emma Thompson

79. “If there’s a role you’re playing and there’s a great deal of material to explore because the person was real then it’s a completely different preparation time and message to playing someone fictional.”

— Emma Thompson

80. “My mother has never approved of high heels. As a result, I have never been able to walk in high heels – and they were all I ever wanted. So of course, my daughter has two pairs.”

— Emma Thompson

81. “British aren’t really known for their physical loveliness but firemen, generally speaking, are gorgeous.”

— Emma Thompson

82. “I seem finally to have stopped worrying about Elinor, and age. She seems now to be perfectly normal – about twenty-five, a witty control freak. I like her but I can see how she would drive you mad. She’s just the sort of person you’d want to get drunk, just to make her giggling and silly.”

— Emma Thompson

83. “Film is so much to do with perfection and how differently you can feel about someone at the beginning of the film and the end of the film.”

— Emma Thompson

84. “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.”

— Emma Thompson

85. “Families are weird. You’d think that people who live and eat and sleep in the same place would always have a lot in common. But sometimes they don’t have anything in common AT ALL. You can have a brother who really likes ballet and a sister who thinks it’s girlie. You could probably have Darth Vader and Mickey Mouse in the same family; they’re that weird.”

— Emma Thompson

86. “London has always been a haven for victims of cruelty, and been improved by them. Yet I can see it changing now. Outsiders are demonised, there are little bits of legislation, people are scared.”

— Emma Thompson

87. “I have to write for everyone. What really fascinates me is how you make films or make stories that can genuinely be shared by different groups.”

— Emma Thompson

88. “During an election, it’s like they’re doing my job: they’re going around banging the drum for their party and selling their movie. You know, it’s the same thing.”

— Emma Thompson

89. “It doesn’t matter how good the movie is. What matters is what it takes during the opening weekend. It’s slightly distressing sometimes but that’s how it works.”

— Emma Thompson

90. “This morning, I went to wipe my hands on a tea towel, and while I was using it, it seemed like it felt a bit light. I unfolded it and realized my daughter had cut little bits out of it to make frocks for her dolls!”

— Emma Thompson

91. “Laughter is a celebration of our failings. That’s what clowns are for. And that’s what I am.”

— Emma Thompson

92. “I ask Laurie it it’s possible to get trained fish. Lindsay says this is how we know I’ve never produced a movie.”

— Emma Thompson

93. “We’ve got people looking at our seamy side and our sad side a lot of the time because that’s easier. It’s much more difficult to make a film about happiness with lots of jokes in it.”

— Emma Thompson

94. “I present the nominees, well, not me the Voice of God, for Best Screenplay.”

— Emma Thompson

95. “I understand what it’s like to come with your family, and to uproot yourself and come to another culture. You need a lot of support. People say, ‘She’s got her daughter; she’s got her husband.’ Yeah, but she hasn’t got anyone else.”

— Emma Thompson

96. “Why do we wear them? They’re so painful.”

— Emma Thompson

97. “I don’t have technique because I never learnt any.”

— Emma Thompson

98. “The trouble with death is that there is no next. There is only what was and for that I am profoundly and heartbrokenly grateful.”

— Emma Thompson