My mum always told me I was precious, while my dad always told me I was worthless. I think that's a good grounding for a balanced life.

Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?

Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte.

It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves.

Be who you like as long as you mean it.

I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises.

Finally, the scariest thing about abuse of any shape or form, is, in my opinion, not the abuse itself, but that if it continues it can begin to feel commonplace and eventually acceptable.

I think people deny themselves by putting themselves into categories.

I had to be a grown-up when I should have been a little boy, and now that I'm a grown-up my little-boyness has exploded out of me. I've lived my life backwards.

It's actually quite a good ethos for life: go into the unknown with truth, commitment, and openness and mostly you'll be okay.

You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep.

Make peace your purpose of life.

Vulnerability is the curse of the thinking classes.

I received $100 per week when I started working at the Globe after graduation.

I have no child to inherit my properties. You, the people, are my only family, and to make you happy is the reason I do politics.

You have to give 110% all the time. 100% isn't good enough anymore.

Passionately protest mediocrity.

A dream is like a river ever changing as it flows and a dreamer's just a vessel that must follow where it goes.

When there's people on the other side of the room trying to wipe out your life and things are stacked against you, you can get nervous.

I am only too aware that I am open to Rees's Second Law of Quotation: "However sure you are that you have attributed a quotation correctly, an earlier source will be pointed out to you."

Music is like having a conversation. All musicians inspire each other, and they're all geared to play something that matters.