I usually play toffs and soldiers, with a sideline in mass murderers.

Most good art is left wing. It's a moot point whether there is any good right-wing art.

[P]erfect freedom consists in obeying the dictates of right reason, and submitting to natural law. When a man goes beyond or contrary to the law of nature and reason, he . . . introduces confusion and disorder into society . . . [thus] where licentiousness begins, liberty ends.

Books don't exist unless you read them. And it's a two way process - you write the book as you read it and you fill in the gaps. You discover it and you put the marks together and without you doing it they're just marks.

I am a coward, basically, but one of the things about acting is that you are always putting yourself through yet another test.

We'll be back. I promise you that.

If you play a part that's been done before, on stage for instance, you feel like you're carrying a torch and staggering under the weight of it for a bit and then passing it on to somebody else.