Nobody's really unsympathetic, I think. People do good and bad things. If a character's totally unsympathetic, they're not real and I'm not interested. Even the real monsters have to have a spark of something you can relate to.

I think people ought to do what they feel useful at the time. If I do things because I ought to do them, I switch off.

What's exciting is there's a curtain that divides the audience from this other world. You want to see behind.

The actor in me would always like to be more dashing, or slimmer, or have nicer hair.

As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year.

I can't throw books away. My wife is always telling me to get rid of some.

The security comes, as an actor, in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career, or how people perceive you, you'll make yourself unhappy, because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off, to think, 'There's nothing I can do.'