I always try to put myself in the way of surprise as much as possible. My ambition is to keep challenging myself. I like that journey of discovery..

I think when you don't know where you stand with someone, they can surprise you in their goodness and their badness, and that makes them human..

I like to act because I can forget about everything else..

I'm not a perfectionist at all. I find perfectionists boring because the real creative heart is in the mess somewhere..

When you are an actor, rejection and disappointment are an occupational hazard..

In all honesty, we all want our fantasy selves to be the best people. We all think in a time of crisis, we will react heroically and with humanity..

I think I’m quite a lazy person, actually. If I’m not careful, I could just stay in bed all day..

Liverpool has always made me brave, choice-wise. It was never a city that criticised anyone for taking a chance..

I'd really like to get on a Greyhound bus and go backpacking across America..

Savannah is amazing with the town squares and the hanging moss and the French Colonial houses. It's brutally romantic..

Nothing is my guiltiest pleasure. I love it. I love doing it. I love planning to do it, I love loafing and pottering and chilling and daydreaming..

All actors think every job will be their last..

It's always good to find out what you don't want to do..

'Evil' is quite a blanket term. People aren't the demonic characters we would like them to be sometimes..

I think the corruption of power is very interesting, and I think the idea that power is something that... You know, when people want power, they're a….

I always have to go out to work even if it's just a desk somewhere or an office or the British Library..

My house is very clean apart from a very small part of it that looks as if we've been burgled, which is my office..

I love getting stuff, and if I give a present to someone and don't get one back, you can bet your life they won't be getting one next year..

You want people to identify with the person on the screen or in the theater, but you don't want them to identify with you as a person..

You look at any war zone and you talk to any soldiers and they have to blank out - in order for that to work for them, in order for them to survive t….

Liverpool will always be my home..