“I suddenly think the job of acting is a difficult one. It’s not as flip, irrelevant, and shallow a calling as I thought it was in the Eighties.”

To be successful you don’t need beautiful face and heroic body, what you need is skillful mind and ability to perform.

If you get the quality right, then the marketability or whatever; your ability to sell videos or your ability to earn money or whatever, will follow naturally.

If you get the quality right, then the marketability or whatever; your ability to sell videos or your ability to earn money or whatever, will follow naturally.

What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teachings of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?

I’m certainly not aware of suppressing more sophisticated ambitions.

It’s a bit disconcerting being treated like Madonna.

I tend to play rather odd men. People that are slightly odd or eccentric, or have a more particular attitude to life.

If you’re a serious actor, it’s when you know you’re going to die tomorrow that you really start to feel it.

I have to say that I’ve always believed perfectionism is more of a disease than a quality. I do try to go with the flow but I can’t let go.

Lord, thy one-liners are as good as thy tricks. Thou art indeed an all-round family entertainer.

Apart from the fact that your physical ability starts to decline, I also think someone in their fifties being childlike becomes a little sad. You’ve got to be careful.

In the modern media age, we are rarely surprised by what we see.

Excellence is not an act but a habit.

It’s not easy to take a sit-com and turn it into a feature.

I enjoy racing historic motorcars from the ’50s and ’60s.

I don’t think you should be too absolutist about what you play and what you don’t play.

We supposed to be grown, but yet you still acting childish.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it.

Acting is different from stand-up. It gives you this ability to enter into another character, to create another person.

I constantly find myself changing my mind all the time. One day, I want to do just acting and just that. One day I want to do music and just that.

I’m unconscious while I’m acting. I live the role and am not myself.

I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all.

Acting is easier and smoother than singing – it’s less drama.