There's a lovely freedom of will when you approach a character that no one has really come across before, because it is your own interpretation.

It's never fun to be scared [about stage fright] but I think that it is important and it's healthy to always push yourself.

You always try to play it off cool, but even if I think I have a certain laidback body language when I'm meeting someone who I greatly admire, I still have this horrible tendency to go bright red.

I think booze is a good ritual. I think knocking back a shot of whiskey does calm the nerves and helps a lot.

The honeymoon phase always ends, for everyone.

Graduating at the age of 21 was a wonderful age to hopefully start a career.

Unfortunately I don't have my grandparents, but Mum and I are working quite well together. That's candid, that's frank. Your grandmother is never going to lie to you.

I don't really think it matters if you go into stage or TV as long as you do a bit of character work, really.

With big productions, you can sometimes get lost with the terminology and all the different departments.

I had the most fantastic time filming 'Downton.'

First and foremost, Scotland is my home, and I do consider myself Scottish, but I also feel very British, and I hope that Scotland stays within the Union. I have a real concern about independence.

The mind can be hunted, but hunting needs the mind.

We all have bad things inside us, and we all choose either to give in to those bad things or to fight them.

I look forward to taking on issues regarding the Constitution, intellectual property, terrorism, and other legal and regulatory reforms.

Sweet harmonious sounds give exquisite joy to human beings capable of appreciating music. I delight in hearing harmonious tones made by the human voice, by musical instruments, and by both combined.

Oliver Twist has asked for more!

Character is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.

There was no one to understand Me until I created the whole world.

Confidence is believing in yourself. Arrogance is telling others you’re better than they are. Confidence inspires. Arrogance destroys.

Villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption; Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man; Snakes in my heart-blood warm'd, that sing my heart; Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas.