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Tamsin Greig Quotes

Powerful Tamsin Greig for Daily Growth

I knew a homeless guy who'd give all the copper coins that people gave him to charity. So I think there's something that makes us want to give. For me, it's quite a selfish luxury: you feel enlivened, deepened and self-nurtured by generosity.

- Tamsin Greig

Feel, Guy, I Think, Generosity

I think that if you take somebody out of their comfort zone, they're going to dislike people because they're not liking themselves in a situation.

- Tamsin Greig

Think, Going, I Think, Comfort Zone

I tried to get into the National Youth Theatre and didn't, and I tried to get into drama school and didn't, and then I went to university and was really delighted that I went there. I think having the word 'no' can be quite creative.

- Tamsin Greig

Think, I Think, Having, Delighted

When I was 17, a neighbour I knew well died of cancer, and I became au pair to her three little girls. In circumstances like that, when you can't really help, I think it's a human response to do something beyond oneself. So I did a sponsored parachute jump for Cancer Research. It was exciting and ridiculous.

- Tamsin Greig

I Think, Became, Neighbour, Parachute

Going to rehearsals of school plays got me out of science. It became clear what inspired me and what dampened my spirit. The only other thing I could do at school was trampolining - it didn't seem to have much future in it.

- Tamsin Greig

Other, Became, School Plays, Rehearsals

I am interested in shows that are not out-and-out gag fests: you see the truth of a broken heart behind them. That is what life is like: it's really funny, you see funny things as soon as you step out of the room, but underneath that is a whole bag of broken hearts. It's that real pain and that real hilarity that makes life so intriguing.

- Tamsin Greig

Broken Heart, Behind, Bag, Underneath

We live in a fast-paced culture where we're asked to make snap decisions all day long, so I suppose cash-point donations feed into the immediacy of our life experience. So it's a great idea. But I think it needs careful handling.

- Tamsin Greig

Idea, I Think, Donations, Fast-Paced

There's something in us that lives just beyond our normality - and I think we've all got a song in us. If only we could master that tiny muscle and make it sound listenable.

- Tamsin Greig

Song, Think, I Think, Normality

I think comedy stems from being honest, often painfully so. I hope I can achieve that perspective in my own life and also have fun.

- Tamsin Greig

Think, I Think, Stems, Painfully

You step over the threshold of your parents' home, and you're instantly transported back to your childhood. It's like time travel. You revert at once to a place of arrested development.

- Tamsin Greig

Development, Over, Arrested, Revert

Families are families. We've all got them, more or less, and we all know what it's like to be bullied by another generation.

- Tamsin Greig

Generation, More, Like, Bullied

If you stop being scared, that's when entropy sets in, and you may as well go home.

- Tamsin Greig

Go Home, May, Sets, Scared

I'll read a recipe but then decide, 'Well, it's sort of like this, then.' Or I'll go to the fridge and think, 'I'll see what I can put together,' and I'll combine beetroot and sausage and prawns with goat's cheese sprinkled on top and think, 'I like that they're all slightly pink. It looks fine and... actually, it is fine.'

- Tamsin Greig

Pink, Fridge, Slightly, Combine

I can do a little bit of comedy. I can be in an in-between place, where I can do a little bit.

- Tamsin Greig

Comedy, Place, Where, In-Between

Carelessness makes me cross. And unkindness.

- Tamsin Greig

Me, Cross, Makes, Unkindness

I think going from doing TV and straight plays to Shakespeare is weird enough because you have this heightened language, and you are telling a story through metric poetry. But I think music is that place beyond poetry.

- Tamsin Greig

Doing, Through, Telling, Metric

A lot of middle-aged women are children still trying to find their way.

- Tamsin Greig

Children, Still, Lot, Middle-Aged

Dad was a retired chemist who, in his 60s, fathered and fed me and my two sisters while Mum worked as a secretary. He made us curries, Chinese meals and strange concoctions. He was often unsuccessful.

- Tamsin Greig

Fed, Mum, Dad, Chemist

I did a drama degree, went to secretarial college, then got a job with a theatre company in Birmingham. It's been a slow burn, which doesn't seem to have gone out.

- Tamsin Greig

College, Burn, Which, Birmingham

I've long thought that for my last meal on earth I will be perfectly happy with a granary loaf toastie with melted crunchy peanut butter and banana.

- Tamsin Greig

Banana, Butter, Perfectly, Loaf

Laughing and crying are very similar. They're an extreme response to life. You see it in children who start laughing hysterically.

- Tamsin Greig

Start, Very, Similar, Laughing

I'm quite an odd little part of the Venn diagram. I'm not a movie star and beautiful in that way. I do an odd thing that's funny and sad, and my face and my old body can take that.

- Tamsin Greig

Star, Old, Movie, Diagram

I work in Britain, where women are allowed to look their age.

- Tamsin Greig

Work, Britain, Allowed, Women Are

Maybe this whole obsession about colouring our hair is about our inability to grow up. To let go of the fact we aren't children any more, and the whole thing about changing our faces and looking young, and 60 being the new 40, is maybe we don't want to let go of our childhood.

- Tamsin Greig

Fact, Young, Maybe, Let Go

I was a cleaner while at university. The job wasn't bad, but I was amazed by how badly cleaners are treated - how disrespected they are by the people they work for.

- Tamsin Greig

Bad, Treated, Badly, Cleaner

I know women at work who don't talk about having a baby because they don't want to upset the apple cart, but unless people know what the problems are, why should they engage with it?

- Tamsin Greig

Work, Upset, Having, Engage

I have a shallow understanding of what it means to be alive, and I know certain things about parenting and being a wife and doing the school run. I know little bits, but I'm really a paddler on a beach.

- Tamsin Greig

Doing, Alive, Means, Shallow

I think I'm a bit odd.

- Tamsin Greig

Think, I Think, Bit, Odd

Scientifically speaking, if I say something, or it gets misquoted, or people put a spin on it... I mean, are you interested, really, in what people are saying?

- Tamsin Greig

People, Say, Gets, Misquoted

I've been so amazed at the number of really professional top-of-their-game women who I know to be intelligent, well educated and brilliant who have said, 'What was it like to snog Matt LeBlanc?'

- Tamsin Greig

Brilliant, Like, Been, Matt

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