I always want to do things that are different. I don't want to be doing the same thing, the same performance constantly, and it feels like most peopl….

I think one probably absorbs things like a sponge and things emerge without your always being aware of it..

I never want to sort of put all the cards on the table all at once, because that's somehow there's always a journey to go on. There's always somethin….

I'd always liked the idea that drama acts at its best as a kind of arena for debate, not just about the thing itself, but also producing aesthetic, s….

All the great novels, all the great films, all the great dramas are fictions that actually tell us the truth about us or about human nature or about ….

It's taken me longer still to realize what a short span there is between those life experiences and the rest of your life. That's a job for the peopl….

I was born in 1961. Now I think the 16 years that elapsed between 1961 and the end of the wars is nothing. To a child growing up it felt like an eter….

Surely the job of fiction is to actually tell the truth. It's a paradox that's at the heart of any kind of storytelling..

The space and light up there in Norfolk is wonderfully peaceful. I find myself doing funny things like gardening, and cooking, which I rarely do in L….

I've never had a desire to be famous. Lots of actors are actually extremely shy. I have shy areas..

As an actor, you ask yourself what you can do to put yourself in a position where you can play that role..

I choose to give truly of myself, entirely of myself, to the people I choose to do that with, and I can't do that with everyone..

I read about this hotel that was great, down in the south of the island, not in a touristy area. I had no particular desire ever to go to Jamaica, bu….

He has such a patronizing tone and manner, and such a sarcastic sense of humor. I found him rather brutal, a kind of elegant brutality which appealed….

I would have loved to have met some former spies, but they don't readily advertise themselves unless they're not living in Moscow, and even then. I'm….

My dad served in the Air Force as ground crew for several years, and doesn't really talk about it. I know that it's there. I think my main thing abou….

People will say that it's some kind of evasion, but I would never want to have a kid for me. I'd want to have the child for the child's sake, if that….

I don't have the energy or the mental security to get involved with all that. I think it's a good idea to be able to disappear into the story, so tha….

I did decide that you have to put your name about a bit, and so, although I would have preferred to have never done publicity or an interview or a fa….

I'm just a hired actor who was hired for a particular job, but I think one of the joys of reading the script was the way that the personal and the gl….

The Jungian view of drama would be that it affects all of our imaginations and somehow taps into our hidden, ancient, primordial memories..