“When you have a character to work with, you carry them around in a strange way – they make you look at the world in a different way.”

I think that sometimes in theater, I don’t prepare much beyond going to the rehearsals.

I find it weird that people want to know about you.

I reckon domesticated cats have a pretty good life.

My favorite Bond films are the really early ones, the first ones in fact, like ‘Dr. No’ and ‘From Russia with Love.’

I always feel I am in the dark. You are never finished… it is not as if you can look back and think: ah… I know what I am talking about. You are only as good as your last job and are always struggling and striving and you never quite get to where you want to be.

As an actor you have total rights to privacy and mystery, whatever your sexuality, whatever you do. I don’t see why that has to be something you discuss openly because you do something in the public eye. I have no understanding of why we turn actors into celebrities.

It’s fun to pretend you’re good at something you know you wouldn’t be good at in real life.

I was quite a shy child – not chronically, but I tended to blend into the background.

The thing I love about acting is that you can bring something very personal into the open and at the same time remain hidden because you’re always playing a character in a story that someone else has imagined. You’re always protected.

I love films. I love music. I love poetry and stories. All of that I feel… I sort of get very excited and fed by.

I can be shy, but I’m not really. I try to be better at overcoming these things people have said.

I used to collect knick-knacks, like wizards, trolls and little buddhas, and arrange them like precious things on a shelf.

I don’t think I am especially interested in celebrities, but I love talking about what is going on with people and why they do what they do.

The most amazing thing is when you find yourself watching someone in the café or something doing something weird. It’s amazing what people do, isn’t it, when you just look at them, when you take the time to look.

Dustin Hoffman also never does the same thing twice which is totally stimulating because you’re always getting something new from him. You never really know what he’s going to do next, so you have to be on your toes.

In film, I find it very useful always to do some preparation before you start rehearsals or start shooting, because there’s so much that’s against you on a film set.

Beethoven had a great look. It was very much about the drama of appearance.

You don’t have to look a certain way to have a hit record.

An awful lot of England is slowly eroding, in ways that I find really distressing, and an awful lot of it is the hedgerows…

I was wiser at 30 than I am now. My judgment was better at 12. If you look out the windshield of a Hyundai or a Bentley, you see the same road.

If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

So I look at a lot of stuff now that I did and some of it looks tame to me, but my interest in terms of what I want to say with it is a little different

Defined brows instantly make you look more polished.

Look, it’s a mainstream animated movie, and how often are those considered thought provoking? It’s meant to be a great time at the theater, but it’s also designed to work on more than one level