If I want to run around a field when I'm 70, I would like to have that option.

I have sleepless nights before press days.

I'd been gearing up to working in theatre since coming out of drama school, but it was an exciting time for TV drama - it was the birth of Channel 4, and Brookside was very cutting-edge at the time.

I like to think I'm a listener, and I'm fascinated by observing people - I suppose you just lock that in.

I think you know what you're up against when you take on a piece that you know is going to involve dragging up a lot emotions - you can end up being deeply immersed in gloom.

It always interests me how obsessed people are about age.

Running gave me a focus to start looking after myself, to eat properly, and focus on building up my strength.

I always start from scratch with a character - they're never based on anyone else. You get ideas of what people look like, and I'm a great people watcher. You can draw inspiration from people.

Whatever I'm doing, I try to give it everything.

Being an actor is an extension of telling a story and I loved story telling as a child.

No, I always wanted to be an actress.

No mortal man could frighten him, no more than the darkness could, nor the bones of his soul, the grey and grisly bones of his soul.

I've been cheered by thousands, booed by thousands, but nothing feels as bad as the booing inside your own head during those ten minutes before you fall asleep.

The thing should have plot and character, beginning, middle and end. Arouse pity and then have a catharsis. Those were the best principles I was ever taught.

You have to be like a lion and a fox. The fox is smart enough to recognize traps, and the lion is strong enough to scare away the wolves. Be like a lion and a fox, and no one will ever beat you.

Only the heart without a stain knows perfect ease. [Ger., Ganz unbefleckt geniesst sich nur das Herz.]

More often than not, the only thing between you and your dream is a rational excuse.

I knew Dionysus must've filled it out, because he stubbornly insisted on getting my name wrong: Dear _______Peter Johnson__________.

We are the ones responsible to determine whether the war that our marines, soldiers and airmen are fighting in is worth the cause.

I take that as an insult, even at 36.

Now that their long war was over, they could get on with the proper concern of all civilised nations, which is to prepare for the next one.