I have 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.

— Emma Thompson

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

— Emma Thompson

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.

— Emma Thompson

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

I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them.

— Emma Thompson

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

Jane reminds us that God is in his heaven, the monarch on his throne and the pelvis firmly beneath the rib cage. Apparently rock and roll liberated the pelvis, and it hasn't been the same since.

— Emma Thompson

Kissing Hugh was lovely. Glad I invented it. Can't rely on Austen for a Snow, that's for sure.

— Emma Thompson

Lindsay [Moran] 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

My godfather sad that story was abutted taking the chaotic jigsaw of life, making it into a picture and putting a frame around it so that we could look at it, have control over it. Story and art are the humanizing elements of us.

— Emma Thompson