Rachael Stirling

Rachael Stirling: They're the best friends in the world. Having brothers - I love that. They don't take any rubbish and they beat you up if you've been misbehaving.

Rachael Stirling: It's such a boring cliché to be the daughter of an actress. I'm a living, walking, breathing, smoking cliché!

Rachael Stirling: I must have been nineteen when I took myself off to the Himalayas on my own. I was there for about a month, I had no problems. My parents were very worried, but my elder brothers, Willy and Ludo, were like, 'Naah, she'll be fine'.

Rachael Stirling: I got this film, Still Crazy. I was so green that I didn't even know what they meant when they said 'You're wrapped'. I went back to my caravan. They found me when they were going round to lock up. (on her first movie role)

Rachael Stirling: I wear it like a banner. I'm so proud that I got myself a degree and that I can prove that I'm not a thick actress.

Rachael Stirling: I just think it's so important to throw the net a bit wider. To continue to learn, to research, to be curious, to allow yourself to be curious about subjects, about politics, about literature, about history. History of Art was my degree course, and I was hungry to learn as much as I could before I ended up sitting in a caravan reading scripts twenty-four hours a day.

Rachael Stirling: I didn't go to balls. Okay, I went to one, called the Northern Meeting. But no one filled in my dance card. No dashing white sergeant whisked me off my feet. I was a big, big lass, you see. I didn't start to feel remotely attractive until I was twenty-one. ( on being a teenager)

Rachael Stirling: Everybody used to say, 'You must get the most amazing clothes from your mumma'. Well, I didn't, until now. We did have an amazing dressing-up box, but I plundered it when I was eight. There were gowns from the Bond film and of course I'd cut them with my play scissors. ( on being the daughter of Diana Rigg)

Rachael Stirling: What was I like as a kid? A complete nightmare, I'm sure. Energetic, always riding my pony and swimming in rivers - and pretty self-contained. Well, there weren't any kids living next door. ( on her childhood in Scotland)

Rachael Stirling: It wasn't a Jane Austenesque childhood. Yes, the house was beautiful, but it wasn't a castle. It didn't have, you know, wings. ( on growing up on her father's country estate in Scotland)