“The thing about villains is that villains always have their own logic, and they don’t necessarily see themselves as villains.”

But when he finally does make it, they’re not going to make it easy for him. That never changes.

The BBC came to me and they wanted to adapt the book [Three Musketeers] again, in the straightforward way, and I said no to that.

The concept of being loyal to your friends, to the point where you’d even die for them, is a great subject.

Richelieu was a great statesman, and like all great statesman, he was a very ruthless man.

The situation that women were in, at the time, was something that Dumas doesn’t really go into, but it’s a great subject to look at.

In the very beginning, she’s using him in a pretty cynical way.

When she gets to know him, she sees qualities in him that she recognizes and it’s almost like trying to remake the past, but of course, it doesn’t work.

It’s a great genre because you can do a lot. Sometimes in thrillers, you can really explore things, and it’s the same in this genre.

You have to make that judgement yourself, and that’s partly where the casting director is so good. It was that blend that we were looking for.

And we’re always talking to the directors about that. It’s a big challenge to find people that can do it.

But you need them to also have that sense of fun and that sense of movement and that ability to get the actors to really respond to the material in the way that you want them to. It’s a very big thing.

Being able to do action sounds like it should be straightforward, but it really isn’t.

In the book, D’Artagnan doesn’t actually become an official Musketeer until quite near the end.

There was a lot that I wanted it to do, and I wanted it to be fun. It’s fun, but it’s not simple fun.

I want to make sure people are constantly surprised and interested.

They’re classic themes, which is why I think it’s such a great story to look at again.

Lady Macbeth’ is a great opportunity for me to prove that maybe the outcome of ‘The Falling’ was not necessarily a fluke.

I don’t think that every child in America is going to necessarily aspire to, you know, a four-year degree from a liberal arts college or a certain kind of life. I think that people should learn to be excellent in the thing that they choose to do.

I don’t think that sex necessarily produces intimacy.

Some piece of ourselves, not necessarily our consciousness, but some piece of ourselves gets passed on and on and on.

Higher education is not necessarily a guarantee of higher virtue.

People don’t need to necessarily see me in the jersey to understand who I am and what message I’m trying to get across with the things that I’m marketing.

Family does not necessarily mean blood relatives but often a description of a community, organisation or nation.

Now do I get some time off? Do I get a bonus? Do I get to go on a cruise? But it’s not to keep trying to be the best. That’s not necessarily human nature.