Acting is about giving something away, handing yourself over to whatever role you are asked to play. I'm not hiding or escaping or seeking anonymity. I reserve the right not to have a rubber stamp on my forehead saying this is who I am. Because who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.

I have every sympathy for writers. It's a mystery to me what they do. I can edit. I can cross out and say, 'I'm not saying that' or, 'How about we move this to here? Wouldn't that make that bit of the story better?' But where any of it comes from is beyond me. I will never write a play or a novel.

Those of you who are not aware of my brilliant career as a stand up comic, I'm not aware of it either so we might well wonder what we're doing here.

I always feel that when I come to Edinburgh, in many ways I am coming home.

Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.

It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.