Any privacy in public is a hard thing to negotiate.

Lines are very difficult to learn.

The more charming person is the person who admits the other person is more charming.

The awful lesson of history is that we too often ignore people, just because they're foreigners or different from us.

I was never geeky about anything.

I'm always keen to use my body in my work, so I'm looking forward to the motion capture for Smaug. Both Gollum and King Kong were primates, whereas I'm playing a serpent, so it'll be interesting - I'll have to tie my legs together, possibly, or else they'll be kind of splayed out to the side as a reptile's should be.

I still find to give an interview to be difficult, as any person who deals with the press will tell you. That's why it's nice, with this one, to talk to a friend. But sometimes with a coffee and a friendly smile, I suddenly start talking without thinking about how it's going to be read.