For an actor to remain a child is rather important. It's a childlike, dreamy thing, acting, if you think about it. It's the sort of thing children fantasise about, playing cowboys and Indians in the street. I think that acting is just a highly refined development of that.

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.

I'm an anorak. I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.

I've always tried to be an actor who... I just plod on and try to keep my mouth shut, mind my own business. I find the whole thing about people's lives... I can't understand it. I'm always astonished that people want to know anything about me.

Oh yeah, I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.