“We put a lot more value, or at least I personally put a lot more value, on the creative values and creative challenges of something than the commercial necessities.”

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.

The arts community still has a long lasting cynicism of the importance, or the artistic value, of comedy. Comedy is just farting about for money.

Your services might be as useful as a barbershop on the steps of a guillotine.

Excellence at everything you can do can be achieved on if it is a habit.