I care more about telly because it made me an actor and there’s a much more immediate response to TV. You can address the political or cultural fabric of your country.

What goes down on film is different to what you see with the naked eye.

It is. I mean people probably know it better than me if you have read the books. I mean, I had not read the third book, by the time I came to do it.

Wouldn’t you like to have heard the voice of Shakespeare, or Jesus Christ?

I do think the story in Halloween 5 is a bit stupid, and there’s a lot more blood. They’re obviously going to take the Halloween series in a different direction.

So the better my partner or my opposition, however you like to think about it, the better my game.

In terms of pure acting, it’s a gift.

People who reach the top of the tree are only those who haven’t got the qualifications to detain them at the bottom.

I’m working class, and want people to know I’m not unintelligent and all the other cliches that come with it.

I think film and television are really a director’s medium, whereas theatre is the actor’s medium.

I’m sure Alex will be having to get the masseurs in to work on those legs. You feel tired when you’re losing but when you are winning it gives you that bit of an edge.

My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines.

And whenever I’m in a situation where I’m wearing the same as 600 other people and doing the same thing as 600 other people, looking back, I always found ways to make myself different, whether...

People will love something very much or hate something very much. But the great thing about a sketch show is that if something comes along that you don’t like, something else will come along in...

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

Critics search for ages for the wrong word, which, to give them credit, they eventually find.

I’ve always resisted the idea of becoming a David Hasselhoff, and I hope I’m still resisting it.

Many times I’ve sat with a camera and another actor and seen all their fears and insecurities and struggles. You want to support them and help them as much as you can.

My ambition is to go back to Spurs and Rangers in some capacity and give something back that they gave to me.

The film follows very much in the tradition of social realism, because I wanted to see a subject like this tackled with honesty.

It’s gotten to the point where it’s big news when I don’t do a horror film.

I succeeded on sort of chutzpah and charm. No technique at all, didn’t know what I was doing, but it worked and the character suited me.

So whoever you believe wrote the plays, they felt it was important to mask them, to mask the identity, the personality of the author.

Men think about women. Women think about what men think about them.

I think everybody’s got different methods of working which suit the particular individual. Mine is to sort of play the part, and give 100%, to concentrate and focus on it while I’m actually working, but...

I don’t like to watch playback. But being on the set, watching the way the camera is being moved and the way the light is being used, you do get an idea of it.

Theatre is expensive to go to. I certainly felt when I was growing up that theatre wasn’t for us. Theatre still has that stigma to it. A lot of people feel intimidated and underrepresented in...

And it was only released in London last week, so when I go back to England Monday or whatever, I am expecting heaps of adulation. I’m hoping there is. If that doesn’t happen I will...

Into thy hands, O Lord. Into thy hands.

Ladies, just a little more virginity, if you don’t mind.

The sad thing about any business I suppose, but in mine you see it particularly, is that you’re always asked to do what you’ve already done.

It’s an intuitive exercise to do a Shakespeare play and to go through a Shakespeare play.

By increasing the size of the keyhole, today’s playwrights are in danger of doing away with the door.

Imagination is a beast that has to be put in a cage.

I think the themes of belonging and parentage and love are obviously universal.

Every game I played was a bonus.

But you see, I have played more good guys than I have played villains.

I don’t know what I’m going to be doing after this film, but I’ll be doing something before long. I just like to work, it’s as simple as that.

At age 10 or 12 he’s going to boarding school in the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is, of course, down at the bottom of England just off South Hampton.

It’s important to hold something back, though, because quite frankly my personal life is pretty dull and I don’t want to bore people with it.

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information.

We all sing about the things we’re thinking; musicals are about expressing those emotions that you can’t talk about. It works a real treat.

My parents always knew I was hopeless at everything else, I was fortunate in that I was backed all the way. I came to it late and only because I thought there’d be loads of...

A man’s character never changes radically from youth to old age. What happens is that circumstances bring out characteristics which have not been obvious to the superficial observer.

Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.

John and I had a few meetings about what direction the sequel should take. I made some real insane suggestions. True to what you’d expect, he ignored them all and just picked up Halloween II...

I think I would not be described as a character actor in that I don’t take on characteristics which are very alien to me.

And it is a very beautiful idea, and possibly true, that a common man from Stratford with a common education was able to write these plays.