“I’ve gone on workout regimes, but I seem to have a system that is very resistant to changing.”

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.

I think being very thin has had a lot to do with how I’ve been cast.

The thing about acting is that it’s fairly random. At the end of the day you take what drifts past you or what’s given to you.

Keats himself spoke about how Shakespeare was capable of erasing himself completely from the characters he had created. As an actor, that is what I’m trying to do.

I’m not tortured and neurasthenic – I’m really not.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.

You may be gone but you’re never over.

Trust one who has gone through it.

I just hope that you miss me a little when I’m gone.

Sometimes you have to forget what’s gone, appreciate what still remains, and look forward to what’s coming next.

I am risking my life for my work, and half my reason has gone.

When you give someone your whole heart and he doesn’t want it, you cannot take it back. It’s gone forever.