He knows that you have ability and what he does is he manipulates it and sort of empowers you.

I watched every single Bond movie three or four times, taking in everything I could about how the character had been portrayed in the past, then threw all that away once I started doing the role.

What I like about Layer Cake is its intelligent through-line. First of all, I think it's very close to the truth; I think this is what successful drug dealers are like. They don't drive around in flashy cars, they don't show off, they behave very quietly, they get on with their job and they earn lots of money. And it goes up and up and up and up the scale. Secondly - and selfishly - I like the moral aspect of the movie, which is that violence has consequences, and you feel emotionally involved with the violence.

Some stalkers are quite benign, but finding someone in your garden at three o’clock in the morning with a meat cleaver and a hard-on can’t be much fun.

The truth is, I don't have any problem with journalists - I count some of them as friends - also some of my heroes are journalists, I'm a big fan of Robert Fisk - great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what's right.

My mother gave me a real kick toward cooking, which was that if I wanted to eat, I'd better know how to do it myself.

It didn't even really matter how good the band was - if someone could keep a beat, then you were prepared to jump up and down and smash around.