Going into auditions, there is a wonderful butterfly feeling in your stomach - an equal balance of being utterly terrified and exhilarated that this is your chance.

It's never fun to be scared [about stage fright] but I think that it is important and it's healthy to always push yourself.

You always try to play it off cool, but even if I think I have a certain laidback body language when I'm meeting someone who I greatly admire, I still have this horrible tendency to go bright red.

I think booze is a good ritual. I think knocking back a shot of whiskey does calm the nerves and helps a lot.

There's a lovely freedom of will when you approach a character that no one has really come across before, because it is your own interpretation.

The honeymoon phase always ends, for everyone.

Graduating at the age of 21 was a wonderful age to hopefully start a career.

Unfortunately I don't have my grandparents, but Mum and I are working quite well together. That's candid, that's frank. Your grandmother is never going to lie to you.

I don't really think it matters if you go into stage or TV as long as you do a bit of character work, really.

With big productions, you can sometimes get lost with the terminology and all the different departments.

I had the most fantastic time filming 'Downton.'

A happy marriage- a love match- is something overwhelming, and overpowering.

Adversity relieves people of vanity and egotism. It discourages selfishness by proving that no one can succeed without the cooperation of others.

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.

The general public will almost always stand behind the traditionalists. In the public eye, architecture is about comfort, about shelter, about bricks and mortar.

Back home everyone said I didn't have any talent. They might be saying the same thing over here, but it sounds better in French.

Knowledge is knowing... or knowing where to find out.

Like the archers of Agincourt, John O'Neal and the 254 Swiftboat Veterans took down their own haughty Frenchman.

Now that you know the truth, you can never go back.

I’ve kissed girls before, it’s fun!

Timing really is nearly everything. And what it isn't, circumstance makes up for.