You take this cold, remarkable, difficult, dangerous, borderline psychopath man, and you wonder what might have happened to him had he not met his best friend, a friend that no one would have put him with, this solid, dependable, brave, big-hearted war hero. I think people fall in love, not with Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson, but with their friendship. I think it is the most famous friendship in fiction, without a doubt.

Rose: 'If you are an alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?' Doctor: 'Lots of planets have a north!

[The Doctor, Capt. Jack and Rose are cornered by the empty children.] The Doctor: Go to your room! Go to your room! I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross! GO! TO! YOUR! ROOM! [The children lurch away and obey him.] I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words.

Peter Capaldi, will always be Doctor Who. You retain the title forever. Ask your predecessors, they all think they're the real one. I've had Sunday lunch with Peter Davidson and David Tennant and they're eyeing each other like, 'It's me!

What is immutable about Sherlock Holmes? He favors reason over emotion, but actually underneath that, there is a lot of emotion going on. You can't suddenly make him ordinary because he would hate that. He's not suddenly going to be somebody else.

Between the marriages, I shagged my way round television studios like a mechanical digger.

I'll be a story in your head. But that's OK. We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know; it was the best.