A script is only as good as the director who's making it.

I think it's very important not to grow up with the unhealthy amount of attention that is sometimes put on people because they are 'actors'.

I use my awards as doorsteps. Others are in the office or in little cubbyholes in our library – they go between the books, because they actually look like arty pieces

I had a great start in television; the first thing I did was an episode of Performance called The Entertainer with Michael Gambon playing Archie Rice.

When I was 14 I told my mother I intended to be in the House of Commons in the morning, in court in the afternoon and on stage in the evening. She realised then a fantasist had been born.

As I've got older, I feel more confident in my body, so wouldn't want to tamper with it.

My own parents were very un-neurotic, so I never thought that I had to change enormously in order to become a parent.