“If the president of the country is not actually saying something, allowing equality to happen, how could you expect to counsel kids not to bully other kids?”

I don’t avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me.

I wouldn’t do my roles if I really hated it. I’ve done things I hated, but I didn’t go into them thinking I would hate them. I want to have fun. I don’t want to go to work and not enjoy it.

I’ve actually found – especially doing my cabaret show – I’m connecting with people in a way I haven’t connected with them. I’ve found that when you’re open and honest, people respond to that, whatever you’re being open and honest about.

He … knew, in that instant, that his life would not be an easy one-he was different, he looked different, he thought differently.

If they’re not seeing that their society sees gay people as equals, how could you tell them what they’re doing is wrong?

I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare. I actually want to do this Shakespeare play in New York, but I think it’s interesting that there’s this gaping hole in the repertoire in the American theater, which is Shakespeare.

So the experts think we could have an AIDS-free generation in Africa by 2015, even if the mothers are positive.

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety’s not my forte.

In my first year at drama school, I did this kids’ show called ‘Let’s See.

I think people deny themselves by putting themselves into categories.

Once in a while it’s good to challenge yourself in a way that’s really daunting.

It’s interesting, for me sappy means sentimental and something that gets you in your heart, gets you emotional. That’s what I mean. Also, of course, it means that I’m slightly setting up the audience that there’s a bit of fun involved, as well.

Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.

I’d been depressed before, of course. But I’m talking about really depressed. Not just feeling a bit down or sad, a depression that has something to do with biorhythms. I’m talking about the kind of depressed that floats in upon you like a fog.

I come more to Scotland than I ever used to, so I feel more connected to it, more part of the zeitgeist. You know when you realize you have a choice and I’m choosing my homeland. It’s funny: when you get older these things creep up to you.

It’s actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you’ll be okay.

I actually dress up more in my home than I do walking down the street just because it is so much fun to play dress up.

We may treat of the Soul as in the body – whether it be set above it or actually within it – since the association of the two constitutes the one thing called the living organism, the Animate.Now from this relation.

Hip-hop is so saturated with the same old same old that people always expect the guy to actually be the guy. They want you to be real and straight from the streets and all that.

I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat.

Every actor has three versions of each scene – the one that you rehearse the night before, in your bedroom.

I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don’t see in the daytime.

I’m more of a cringer at first and when it is years down the road and out of my way, I can actually appreciate it somehow.

Things happen differently when you’re actually here, so you can’t put out a general guideline that’s gonna show up in text and be interpreted. There are no rules. Just be yourself.