“I had done drama at university, but I never thought I could be a direc...” — Marianne Elliott Quote

“I had done drama at university, but I never thought I could be a director. There were so few female directors then. I just assumed you had to be a man to be a director. I also assumed you had to be extremely authoritarian and extremely intellectual, none of which I was.”

“If you put a blank canvas in front of Matisse and say, 'This has to be a success,' who's going to pick up a paintbrush?”

“I've enjoyed lots of productions, and it's always been down to the actors I've been working with.”

“I had assumed I'd pack my bags and head elsewhere after 'Constellation,' but Chechnya is creeping its way into the margins of my second book.”

“When you are being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, you are the prisoner in the dock: assumed guilty unless proved innocent, under intense pressure, on the defensive. There are very few people who can look relaxed in that position.”

“I have had many more close women friends than men, and I've always assumed that comes from the fact that in my family there was such a disproportionate female element.”