Emily Maitlis Quotes

My first job now is as a mother, everything else is secondary. My kids understand that I am an actress, and they are always so surprised to hear my voice on a cartoon character, or see my face on a video box. If it ever gets to be too much though, the career and the kids, I will simply set the career aside.

My sons are precious to me and I have tried incredibly hard to strike the right balance between work and home life while being acutely aware that I haven't always got it right.

I rarely need career advice because I don't have a career. No, that's not true. I can't really go far away while my kids are living with me.

My only reason why I am not doing films is my children. My children need my attention, and it's my duty to give them my time. I have not given birth to them to just dump them and go off to work. I am not that kind of a person.

A man should never neglect his family for business.

Some scripts you read and say, 'I've just got to do this' and you find a way of making it work. Some things you turn down because of the impact on family.

There's always going to be a ball up in the air, and what I try to do is make sure that ball is never the kids. If that means sacrificing a social event or having fewer work commitments, it's worth it.

Sometimes I think I might have children while I'm still working, but then I think I'd better wait until I can give them all I want to give.

If I want to tuck my son into bed and read him a story, but that means I have to take a red-eye to get to a concert - which I would never think of doing otherwise - that's just the way it is. Even if I can't hit the note that night, I got to tuck my child in!

If you have a passion and love for something, it's hard to give it up. I had jobs where the people were helpful and let me go to auditions, and I'd make up the hours another day. I was lucky in that respect: I could afford to get to London.

I really pulled back on my career when the kids were young and my husband and I made a pact never to work while the other one was.

I have said a lot that it's very important to me to make time for my child and make her the priority. I made sacrifices so that I'm around and not traveling for that.

In a broken marriage, it can be challenging and tough to get that work/life balance. I love performing but I also love being a mum, and I hate having to choose between them.

I turned down a movie this summer because it was nine weeks in Vancouver and my oldest daughter is 14. I've got four more summers with her. I'm not giving away nine weeks of her summer to go do a silly movie.

I rarely get a moment to myself, but I love the way that my agenda is dictated by the children, not my work.

Once I have children, the kids come first. One thing at a time for me.

Politically, it may not be the right thing to do, but sometimes proceeding with one's responsibilities can have personal costs.

I adore my family; they are my joy. However, I am committed to my work. If, on a Saturday morning when I was ostensibly going to be with the children, and something arose at RADA or at UNICEF or at the orphanage or whatever, I would allow the other pressures to take precedent.

I don't want my kids to grow up with no father like I did. I came to the conclusion a while ago that you can work until midnight and not be finished or you can work until 6 or 7 and not be finished. I decided I'd rather work until 6 or 7.

I just don't want to miss anything in the lives of my children while they are still young. It's why I don't audition for leading roles at all and why I say no to some of the supporting roles that I do get offered.

I hope I will be a good Attorney General, but one of the things that will be as important to me is to know that I made a commitment to my family and honored it, a commitment that has been repaid 10,000 times over.

I'm married to my kids and my career.

I'll say to you truthfully - I don't want be away from my three kids, but I'm here because I love playing for Scotland.

I've got to do what I've got to do, for me, my family and my kids.

What I've tried to do is focus on either my job or being a mom, and just go really hard on that so that I can feel like I'm doing my best job at both roles.