We all need a firm sense of identity.

I've never been up with the times, always been slightly out of step.

My parents always knew I was hopeless at everything else, I was fortunate in that I was backed all the way. I came to it late and only because I thought there'd be loads of women and drinking!

No matter how big a name you are, how many big series you've been in or how good looking you are, in the end, all actors are secondary to the writer.

The money is better in films and television. But in terms of acting, theatre is more rewarding.

I want to direct but I think I'd be bloody awful and I don't want to produce but I think I'd be a very good producer because if I believed in something I'd be able to protect it.

Jacobean plays, before Shakespeare, were particularly visceral.