Emma Thompson Quotes

Powerful Emma Thompson for Daily Growth

About Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson, born on April 15, 1959, in London, England, is an accomplished British actress, screenwriter, and producer who has left a profound impact on the film industry with her versatile performances and insightful scripts. Raised in a family of academics – her father was a professor of economics and her mother, a teacher – Thompson developed a love for literature and theater from an early age. She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, where she studied English Literature. Thompson's acting career began in the 1980s with roles in various British television productions. However, it was her role as 'Miss Kenton' in the film adaption of 'Sense and Sensibility' (1995) that catapulted her to international stardom. She wrote the screenplay for this adaptation, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the first woman to ever win an Oscar for both acting and writing. Throughout her career, Thompson has showcased her remarkable talent in films such as 'The Remains of the Day' (1993), 'Howards End' (1992), 'Nanny McPhee' (2005), and 'Saving Mr. Banks' (2013). Her performances have garnered her two Academy Awards for Best Actress, first for 'Howards End', and later for 'Sense and Sensibility'. Beyond acting, Thompson is also a prolific screenwriter, penning films like 'The Legend of Barney Thomson' (2015) and co-writing the screenplay for 'Brave' (2012), which she also voiced in. Thompson continues to be a powerful voice in the film industry, using her platform to advocate for gender equality and social justice. Her work not only entertains but also challenges societal norms and provokes thoughtful discussions.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Gratitude is the secret of happiness."

This quote suggests that expressing gratitude, or being thankful for what one has, is essential to finding happiness. When we focus on the positive aspects of our lives, rather than dwelling on the negative, we foster a more contented and joyful outlook. Gratitude cultivates a mindset of appreciation, which encourages us to cherish and value our experiences, relationships, and possessions. This, in turn, boosts our overall well-being and promotes a happier life.

"Life is a series of choices, and every choice matters."

This quote highlights the significance and impact of each decision we make in our lives. It emphasizes that every choice we make, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, contributes to shaping our future and defining the trajectory of our life's journey. The implication is that we should be mindful of our choices, understanding that they hold considerable power over the course of our lives. This awareness encourages us to make thoughtful decisions and to strive for a life that aligns with our values and goals.

"I think the more you respect and value yourself, the more other people will, too."

This quote emphasizes that self-respect and self-value are fundamental to how others perceive and treat us. When we hold ourselves in high regard and value our worth, it creates a positive reflection on us that encourages others to do the same. Essentially, the quote suggests that respect is mutual: we must first give it to ourselves before we can expect to receive it from others.

"Knowing what's right isn't the same as doing it." (From the movie "Sense and Sensibility")

This quote highlights the human tendency to understand what is morally or ethically correct, but not always having the courage, resolve, or circumstances to act upon that knowledge. It suggests a discrepancy between our principles and our actions, indicating a complex relationship between knowing and doing, and the challenges in translating ideals into reality.

"We've got this gift of love, that our hearts would be well-used to give away." (From the movie "Love Actually")

This quote emphasizes the significance and abundance of love as a universal human experience and emotion. The gist is that everyone possesses an inherent gift - the ability to express and share love. The ideal is to use this capacity generously, recognizing its transformative power in both giving and receiving it. Love has the potential to heal, connect, inspire, and bring joy, making it a valuable asset worth investing wisely.

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

New, Origin, Instance, HIV

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

- Emma Thompson

Listening, Carefully, Mine, Judicious

British aren't really known for their physical loveliness but firemen, generally speaking, are gorgeous.

- Emma Thompson

Gorgeous, Speaking, Known, Loveliness

There is that thing about not working with animals and children - I don't think that's true. Although you should never work with donkeys.

- Emma Thompson

Work, Think, About, Donkeys

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

Children, Wonderful, Most, Clap

I do think that despite my best efforts to resist it, I am now a grown-up. It's due to lots of very difficult decisions that you make over a long period of time - about motherhood, wifehood, and work, and all the things that one has to make decisions about.

- Emma Thompson

Very, About, Long Period, Difficult Decisions

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

Two, Point, Friendliness, Respected

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

Wealthy, Been, Very, Good Friend

I don't think people understand that being poor means you have to work from dawn until dusk just to survive through the day. I think there's some notion that poor people lie about all day not doing anything.

- Emma Thompson

Doing, Through, Some, To Survive

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

Election, Doing, Movie, Banging

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

Stories, Films, Shared, Fascinates

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 Thompson

Say, Like, Unfortunate, Kinder

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

Always, Been, Haven, Scared

My appearance has changed a lot over the years, but it has far more to do with how I feel about being a woman.

- Emma Thompson

Woman, More, Over, Changed

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

How, Someone, Differently, Perfection

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

More, Side, About, Jokes

I don't have technique because I never learnt any.

- Emma Thompson

Never, Because, Technique, Learnt

We need men and women to sit down and talk to each other about sex honestly and openly. That would help us fight Aids so immediately. But our lack of communication is hugely problematic.

- Emma Thompson

Other, About, Immediately, Sit

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

Think, Here, Imbalance, Misconceptions

My worst quality is impatience.

- Emma Thompson

Quality, Worst, Impatience

And it's absolutely true that male sexual behaviour and female responses to male demands change a lot when they start communicating - and the levels of the communication that I've seen on the ground in very, very poor areas are so high and I think why don't we have that here?

- Emma Thompson

Here, I Think, Very, Levels

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

The Most Important, Very, Levels

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

Stories, Appropriate, Market Forces

I was brought up by very witty people who were dealing with quite difficult things: disease and death... I was brought up by people who tended to giggle at funerals.

- Emma Thompson

Very, Giggle, Brought, Funerals

I've 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

Think, I Think, Prefer, Ought

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

Sometimes, Very, Put, Madam

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

Want, Need, Shelter, Human Rights

If you're actually allowing your creative part to control your writing rather than a more commercial instinct or motive, then you'll find that all sorts of interesting things will bubble up to the surface.

- Emma Thompson

Commercial, Instinct, Rather, Motive

It's not my fault that there is this gap between rich and poor, it is the fault of governments. I want a different world. One where I don't wake up thinking I'm so lucky to be able to feed my daughter.

- Emma Thompson

Lucky, Different World, Between

If you've got to my age, you've probably had your heart broken many times. So it's not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.

- Emma Thompson

Moving On, Some, Over It, Grief

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

Asking, I Think, About, Impacts

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

Hands, Cut, Had, Wipe

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

Husband, Another, Your, Uproot

The only way you can have it all is by delegating all the running of the home to other people - which I don't ever want to do... So you do it yourself, and it takes time and energy and effort. And if you give it the time, it's profoundly enjoyable.

- Emma Thompson

Effort, Other, Profoundly, Enjoyable

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

- Emma Thompson

Think, I Think, Very, Consumerism

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

Here, I Think, Badly, Tissue

But when I lose my temper, I find it difficult to forgive myself. I feel I've failed. I can be calm in a crisis, in the face of death or things that hurt badly. I don't get hysterical, which may be masochistic of me.

- Emma Thompson

Death, Forgive, Badly, Hurt

I have a nervous breakdown in the film and in one scene I get to stand at the top of the stairs waving an empty sherry bottle which is, of course, a typical scene from my daily life, so isn't much of a stretch.

- Emma Thompson

Stairs, Bottle, Breakdown, Typical

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

- Emma Thompson

Result, Tend, Fathers, Wives

Children don't need much advice but they really do need to be listened to and not just with half an ear.

- Emma Thompson

Children, Need, Half, Ear

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

Two, Heels, Been, Daughter

Any problem, big or small, within a family, always seems to start with bad communication. Someone isn't listening.

- Emma Thompson

Communication, Small, Always, Seems

The thing that influenced me most in relation to 'Nanny McPhee' were the Westerns I watched with my father. All the Spaghetti Westerns; all the Virginians; all the High Chaparrals. Because if you think about the form, it's a stranger from out of town.

- Emma Thompson

Influenced, Spaghetti, About, Watched

Maybe I don't take myself so seriously any more. And I don't care how I'm judged. I'm past all that.

- Emma Thompson

Past, More, Maybe, Judged

You can't imagine what satisfaction can be gotten from throwing a pie into someone's face.

- Emma Thompson

Face, Imagine, Throwing, Satisfaction

A lot of very beautiful women can be a pain because all they're thinking about is how they look.

- Emma Thompson

Pain, Very, About, Beautiful Women

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

- Emma Thompson

Mind, Pretty, Having, Effort

The fact is that young people are going to have sex whether you like it or not.

- Emma Thompson

Fact, Young, Young People, Sex

One is a child when one has a child. No one says, 'You will never be the same again.' Which is the truth! And we're all supposed to be happy all the time. What is that about?

- Emma Thompson

Will, Again, Which, Be Happy

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

About, Awful Lot, Mum, Relation

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

Need, Some, Other, Some Things

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