Whether its Veep or Homeland or The West Wing - which is a more idealised version of democracy - people are fascinated by politics.

The journey that we go on as actors is an interesting one and sometimes a revealing one.

I'm not out there trying to get press for myself nor am I trying to convince anybody that I'm living any kind of a life. I'm actually trying to convince people: I don't want you to know what I'm living, because it's none of your business.

You have to always be ready, always be alive, and always be willing to move in a new direction.

I never doubted at all. If you ever doubt then you are in trouble. I never thought: 'I should do this or that in case I don't make it.' I never had a back-up plan.

Mediocrity is the elephant in the room.

The characters created cannot just be a mouthpiece for the writer. When you look at a piece of writing, and it's genuine and it doesn't feel like every character is just a mouthpiece for the writer, but that they've been created in such a way that they're expressing an idea that a writer wants to get across, that's when a story succeeds.