Artists instinctively want to reflect humanity, their own and each other's, in all its intermittent virtue and vitality, frailty and fallibility.

I think, actually, that it's a really fascinating time in history because the development of modern technology and the photographs the satellites were taking from space were mapping the earth in a new way, making us feel like the globe we inhabit is much smaller than previously conceived of, in the human mind.

I learn the lines as soon as I can and then the challenge really, for filming, is to show up and be there and respond to what's around you. That's where the gold dust is. It's really strange, no amount of preparation will help you with the magic of spontaneity on the day [of filming].

Fame is weird and amorphous and unpredictable.

Somehow the past is a safe place to explore our collective cultural neuroses.

If you are at a boys' school, especially, there is a level of bravado that you have to keep up otherwise you'll get picked on.

You've got to do something, even if it's just to kick-start the day. I use music. And running.