Looking in the mirror, staring back at me isn't so much a face as the expression of a predicament.

I was delighted to become a popular-culture reference point. I'm still delighted about it actually, and I still find it to be weird.

My grandmother was a minister as well, which was not that common in the 1930s.

I can actually get involved in getting stories off the ground that no one would ask me to be in because I'm the wrong age, the wrong sex, the wrong nationality, or whatever. I've found it quite exhilarating to have that freedom to tell the stories that aren't just about middle-aged white English guys.

As much as the next person, I want to be approved of, but I'm not greedy for that stuff.

I like playing strange characters. Some people might say it has something to do with a hidden part of myself, but I think it's a lot simpler than that: normal people are just not very interesting.

The skill of a good actor is to make it always seem like you're in that fantastically spontaneous moment. Very often, a stand-up comedian has a different instinct, which is to reinvent. Once you've laid down some material, and made them laugh, you move on and find some new material.