I've played lots of villains in my time and I think the reason they've been so successful is that they're not two-dimensional. They're not black and white. That's the gig.

I'm very organized and tidy in my home life and I generally do something myself rather than farm it out to somebody else. I don't have an assistant or anything because I think I can do it myself.

I think it serves the purpose of the film if the premise is that you're unsure of me because you've only ever really seen me play villains.

I loved making The Imitation Game and it's really gratifying to hear the audience's response to the character that I play.

The Peugeot is a very unthreatening car.

Rowan Joffe is very specific. I mean, he wrote it as well and he has a very orderly writer's mind and the same applies to his directing.

The important bit for an actor is the actual shooting of it, because the minute the shoot ends, it's got nothing to do with you anymore.

When you're making a psychological thriller, what you need to do is have an audience on shifting sand so they're never quite sure where they are.

The idea of transformation - playing something I'm not - is the bit I enjoy most about acting.

In the past, if I didn't work, I didn't eat but now I feel I can not work and I won't starve.

When you shut down vulnerability, you shut down opportunity

A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night.

Half of the people in this room are more dressed up than on any other day in the year, and the other half are more dressed down.

I understand what it feels like not to like aspects of yourself. There have been times that I have felt really terrible about the way I look. I have the seed of that feeling.

When I was 4 or 5 and I could put complete thoughts together and really feel them, I remember watching the Grammy's or something like that and getting real emotional because I wanted to be up there.

Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first

You can always become the person you would have liked to be.

The ethics of editorial judgement, however, began to go though a sea change during the late 1970s and 80s when the Carter and Reagan Administrations de-regulated the television industry.

Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!

Art is action. The way I live my life to its highest degree is by writing, the practice of art.