I'd never read a piece of television where it's an hour script and it's perfect.

When you're dealing with killing people and things that are upsetting, that can be a delicate place to occupy yourself for a day.

We start off wearing frilly shirts and britches and being good guys and the heroes. And then as time goes on, every English actor ends up playing bad guys. That's what we do.

I think the James Bond thing has sailed. But of course I would want to be a Bond villain. They are great parts. I think it's highly unlikely, but one can always dream.

Somebody doing something effortlessly is a lovely thing to watch.

Im not a big fan of patterns. I like the unexpected.

One of the great things about being an actor is that you have a completely different challenge every few months.

Actors are their own worst enemies. They quite often will get in their own way, and I have to be encouraged, endlessly, not to get in my own way.

Ring tones are just irritating, aren't they?

I think the older I get, the less I should be doing.

I don't have much time for real violence at all. I think there are infinitely better ways of changing the world than using violence. Sitting round a table talking is a pretty good start.

What do we know of our mothers? I thought I knew her. But I'd seen her as a child sees a good mother--pure, transparent, incapable of deception.

I'm learning a lot about the culture of weight loss. I didn't know there were bloggers out there who were proud to be fat.

I am sufficiently convinced already that the members of a profession know their own calling better than anyone else can know it.

The only human being I could tell everything was my sister Françoise. She and I were so diametrically different; put together we would have been a fantastic woman.

We were thrilled and we were privileged to be part of a revolution, because make no mistake about it, Ted Turner changed the world with CNN.

Please may this not be a game. Please may this not be a game. Because if it’s a game, I know I’m going to lose.

The Lord is the General, and he has the right . . . the sovereign right . . . to put us where he wants in the battle.

... photographs are so loaded with information. They're remarkable. As I said, you get both the tree and the forest.

I write at all different times. I write in my bed, I write at the table. I need to get it together. I'm working on a book and working, and just jam it in whenever it makes sense.

The mind can ask all the questions on the meaning of life. But it cannot answer one of them, for the answers are beyond the mind.