I always distrust the word art when it is applied to acting.

It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you're going to do a day's work and at the end of it, it's going to be good.

I read a lot, that's my main hobby. I've got an iPad which I store books on and I read voraciously. I'm a slow reader but I'm obsessive. I make references, underline things, cross-reference. I'm an autodidact.

I'm very much a loner. I don't like long relationships with people and I always keep people at a distance.

My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough.

You have to be pretty tough to be an actor, and you have to be pretty certain what you want. You can't waffle through this business.

I've always been hopeless at everything when I was a kid. That's why I became an actor - 'cause I couldn't do anything else.