A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

What's difficult for American audiences is that they're used to a system here where you can get an actor for five years or even seven, and that is signed for at the audition. Whereas in England, no agent will give you an actor for more than three years.

My own belief is that most people are trying to do their best. It doesn't mean they have no nasty side, or that they don't have a bad temper, or that they have never done anything they feel ashamed of. But fiction operates on people waking up trying to be horrible, and I don't think most people are trying to be horrible.

I don't think I'm an unkind person, I don't think my books are unkind, and I don't think my readers are unkind.

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.

If you are lucky, you have your moment. But it is never more than a moment. You have to enjoy it while it lasts.

The moment I was introduced to my wife, Emma, at a party I thought, here she is - and 20 minutes later I told her she ought to marry me. She thought I was as mad as a rat. She wouldn't even give me her telephone number - and she wrote in her diary: "A funny little man asked me to marry him."