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.

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.

When people say, 'If I had my life over again I wouldn't do anything different,' well, I'd do everything differently just for the variety.

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

What did my parents say when I told them I wanted to be an actor? 'Be a plumber.'

I'm rather proud of having been a trainspotter.

Shakespeare I love, but for an English graduate, I'm incredibly badly read.