Helen Mirren Quotes

That's a really strange, unique position to be in - royalty is where you have no choice over what your duties are.

To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it than it is pleasant to them that bear it.

The senior members of the royal family work very hard and I don't think people quite realise that.

The king must never appear in public except when the occasion is extremely important or unavoidable.

If I were dead, then nobody in England would have to fuss about the cost of my security and whether or not I merited such special treatment for so long.

In her darkest hours, Diana, Princess of Wales, could have used a friend like Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The two lived similar lives, a century apart.

It wouldn't bother me at all if I weren't Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Being queen is overrated.

A throne is only a bench covered with velvet.

I spent a lot of time with a crown on my head.

Eighty percent of my life is normal like any other mother. I worry about my children, if they're doing all right. I worry that my husband is doing well. The 20 percent is just the queen aspect that factors in. But for me, it's life as usual, and it's just taking care of my family.

I don't know in the world why anyone would consent to be a king, and never to be left to himself, but to be worried and wearied and interfered with from dark to daybreak and from morning to the fall of night.

It is not a happy lot being a princess in any country, but especially Japan in which every tiny aspect of one's life is governed by the most rigid rules of protocol.

It must be terribly lonely to be a king instead of a man.

You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals.

Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be.

I am quite prepared, if we can do it without any disrespect to the Crown of England, to bring our titles to the marketplace and make a bonfire of them.

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more.

Actually, I think the Princess has no rights whatever. She was born a lady, came into the world in her right mind, ought to have known what was implied by marrying the heir to the throne, and accordingly put up with whatever befell her. In fact, duty.

… as yet the Princess is not aware of the station that she is likely to fill. She is aware of its duties, and that a Sovereign should live for others; so that when Her innocent mind receives the impression of Her future fate, she receives it with a mind formed to be sensible of what is to be expected from Her, and it is to be hoped, she will be too well grounded in Her principles to be dazzled with the station she is to look to.

I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to bring Peter Morgan's Princess Elizabeth to life; she is a gift of a role and a challenge I am so grateful for - a young woman trying to navigate a path through an extraordinary situation.

There's a very delicate but important contract that a Royal has with the British public and it's this: Most people don't mind paying for the Royals as long as those Royals live a miserable, thwarted existence full of horrible compromise.

I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people. Therefore I have cause to wish nothing more than to content the subject and that is a duty which I owe. Neither do I desire to live longer days than I may see your prosperity and that is my only desire.

What did it mean to be called “lord”? I’ll assume you’ve never had the honor, since I doubt any of you happen to be British royalty. (And, if by chance you are, then let me say, “Hello, Your Majesty! Welcome to my stupid book. Can I borrow some cash?”)