Of course I love winning things; I can’t tell you how much I enjoy it.

Very few Englishmen ever ask a woman anything about themselves. They choose instead to lecture their dinner neighbors on a new and better route to the M5, or to praise their own professional achievements. So...

You see, in America, it’s quite standard for an actor to sign, at the beginning of a series, for five or seven years. The maximum any British agent will allow you to have over an...

I don’t seem to have ever had a plan, but I have always been quite good at walking through doors when they are opened. I am never any good at anticipating what will happen next,...

Success means your thoughts are worthy of everyone’s consideration.

I have fits of melancholia when I watch the news, but we all do, don’t we?

I love ‘Sex and the City;’ I think I’ve seen every episode.

One of the things that you’re not really in control of – apart from everything – is your smell.

Especially as I was an old friend, or at least I was a person she had known for a long time, which after a certain point is almost the same thing…

For most directors, the scriptwriter is about as welcome on set as a member of the Taliban.

I like people who don’t accept boundaries. Like Florence Nightingale. And Napoleon or Louis XIV, though I’m not sure how much I’d have liked to meet them. I admire people who aren’t circumscribed by circumstance.

What I dislike about movie culture is that it often presents a parable of our problems – but the issues are all straightforward and the people are either nice or they’re not. In real life,...

I just don’t believe in generalisations.

I think I have a very detailed sense of observation. I am interested in the details of people’s lives and what information these details give.

The ’20s are a very interesting period to me.

It is a truism but it is still true that the longer one knows people the less relevant it becomes whether or not one liked them initially.

I have derived enormous confidence from being a husband and father.

I think America has dealt with – I mean, this is simplistic, and of course I don’t live in America – but the impression I get is that there is not a kind of obligation...

I envy people who can think, ‘No, I’m not going to work today’ when they have a huge pile of deadlines stacking up.

I think every period – except for the 14th century, or something – has some merits.

In the end, drama is successful if you care about the people.

The English country house is certainly an icon of British culture.

Bought marmalade? Oh dear, I call that very feeble.

I mean the truth is, I’ve always been interested in the whole setup of the Old World.

I think the reason why people love ‘Downton Abbey’ is because all the characters are given the same weight. Some are nice, some are not, but it has nothing to do with class or oppressors...