Like many Catholics, I was very affected by the personality of Jesus and that impression, pious as it was, has stayed with me.

To enter a theatre for a performance is to be inducted into a magical space, to be ushered into the sacred arena of the imagination.

The elderly are all someone's flesh and blood and we cannot just shut them in a cupboard and hand over the responsibility for taking care of them to the state.

To live another person's life is quite a weird thing.

When the BBC decided to bring Doctor Who back as a feature film a few years ago, one national newspaper ran a poll to ask its readers who should be the new Doctor, and I topped it.

Childhood didn't have a big influence on me, really - in fact I spent most of it plotting how to escape.

I've come to this conclusion: What makes a great actor is great need. A huge need of acting.

My mother wanted me to be a teacher. She had this vision of me walking across the quadrangle in an Oxford college wearing my academic gown.

I am never bored, never short of anything to do and I don't even ever feel lonely. I am quite gregarious and I get out and about a lot, but sometimes it is just wonderful to be on your own.

Having caught a glimpse of what I might be able to do with my talent, I feel a tremendous obligation to try to fulfill it.

Everything that we have gone through, are going through, and will go through is there in Shakespeare. It is all of human life.

There will never be complete satisfaction in the life, satisfaction is an illusion, there is only heroism.

We will either find a way or make one.

I take praise as not just a reward and a result but also as the beginning of a new process.

I guess the attention paid to appearance is something that belongs to tennis too.

We must ask nothing of artists but to be of their own time.

The sizes and shapes of the panels have never been important to my stories. It has always been the words and images that drew me in, kind of like watching a movie.

Why does the feeling of emptiness occupy so much space?

My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.

Ronaldo has come through for the past two or three years and is the best in Europe. I think at the moment no doubt Ronaldo is the best player.

When you struggle hard and lose money, you're a hero. When you start making money you become a capitalist swine.