“Funny things tend not to happen to me. I am not a natural comic. I need to think about things a lot before I can be even remotely amusing.”

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.

But generally speaking, I tend to be quiet and introspective.

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.

I’m not particularly intellectual or clever or minority-focused in my creative instincts.

Marketing is what gets you noticed.