I'd say, don't listen to what anyone says: you're good. Go put your anorak on. Get your thick bottle-top specs. Draw your little cartoons and your comics and keep writing to the BBC.

When I first came to London, I loved hanging around in cafes, smoking, scribbling, dreaming. It was life-affirming and fun.

I can't imagine I'll be the new George Clooney. That's not really in the cards.

My family has to be very patient living with me, if you're playing a part that's not you. You have to get it right.

The older I get, the more I think lightness of touch is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

A girl once came to my beery flat in Kensal Green, opened the blinds and cooked me breakfast. I married her.

I was amazed to go Oscar and win it. It was fantastic getting up on the stage there and looking down. I thought, "That guy looks like Steve Martin, and that guy's like Arnold Schwarzenegger." But it was Steve Martin, and it was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Then they have this terrible kind of conveyor belt backstage - literally - where they take you to this big hangar where the world's press are gathered, and they make you stand on a stage, and they introduce you.