I did actually sit down with a blank sheet of paper once. I think the phone rang and that was the end of my literary career.

I wanted to be a journalist, I thought it was glamorous and that I'd meet beautiful women in the rain.

I'm not a World War II buff. I know a little bit about it, I was taught the other side of the story in school, so it was unfamiliar to me, the idea of a German resistance, and yet it was considerable.

I did actually sit down with a blank sheet of paper once. I think the phone rang and that was the end of my literary career.

I don't want to associate myself with any specific group of politicians.

All actors who have been around for a long time, which I have, and have been skint for long periods, which I have, find it difficult to turn down jobs. If I turn anything down my stomach turns over. I feel sick. It feels like gambling.

Actors always talk about taking their work home and I always think: 'What are you on? You just turn it off. You are at work and then you go home.'