“We’re living through a time where we are fighting wars fostered by politics, admittedly not on the same scale as the First World War, but with equally tragic realities for our soldiers and their families.”

Even though Doctor Strange is an established character, when you’re doing an origin story there’s a lot of room for manoeuvre.

It is a wonderful thing to get married young and become a father.

Marvel always make it fresh so you can give it your personal twist.

It’s an interesting arc. You start with a character [Doctor Strange] who’s likeable and charming but very arrogant and distant. He’s funny but you can see there are massive holes in his life. It’s a very painful transition and all that he becomes is tested so quickly and violently.

I did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.

I think playing any iconic role when you’re stepping into big shoes, into the shadow of people who have come before you and you can’t process that.

Landing the role of Stephen Hawking was the most positively surprising thing that has happened to me.

I drive a motorbike, so there is the whiff of the grim reaper round every corner, especially in London.

I’ve always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

I tell my wife all my secrets.

There’s a heroic amount of effort that goes into making him [Doctor Strange] a superhero by the end of the film.

I was brought up in a world of privilege.

I’m interested in art for all. I don’t want it to be only the sons and daughters of Tory MPs who get to see my plays.

I had a real yearning to make use of the opportunities I had at school. When I heard about the gap year of teaching English at a Tibetan monastery, I knew I had to do something about it really quickly, otherwise it was going to get allocated.

Live a life less ordinary.

Maybe it’s because I was an only child, but I’ve always wanted kids.

They’re a symbol of the whole town, pretending to fight, love, weep and laugh all the time – and they’re phonies, all of them. And I head the list…their phony hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness.

You learn nothing about someone by the way they win the fight, you learn everything about the way they lose and keep coming back.

The benefit of appointing a hawkish central banker is the increased inflation-fighting credibility that such an appointment brings.

We have a great objective – the light on the hill – which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for.

I think I’m aware of what goes on in my mind more than some guys, and for that reason I fight more battles.

Wartime CEO is too busy fighting the enemy to read management books written by consultants who have never managed a fruit stand.

We hadn’t lost morale. But when you fight for four quarters, it’s tough to always bounce back. The offense kept us in the game the last two weeks and to get out with a win feels really good.

My job is to be some sort of music/lyric psychic, to figure out that that’s the right song to not fight the lyric.