To me, the Sherlock Holmes stories are about a great friendship. Without Watson, Holmes might well have burnt out on cocaine long ago. I hope the series shows how important friendship is.

You must have a twinkle in your eye, a naughtiness - and the audience must realize your mind is working faster than your words.

The most important thing when you're working with greatness is to learn from it, not challenge it.

Don't be too brave. Bravery is a fine thing on some occasions, but sometimes it can be quite a dangerous thing. The stiff upper lip is not always the best.

Holmes has become the dark side of the moon for me. He is moody and solitary and underneath I am really sociable and gregarious. It has all got too dangerous.

Villains are very, very boring to do. They're so much easier than heroes.

The provocation with Holmes is the fact that he's described by Doyle as a man without a heart - all brain... and that's very difficult to play, or even indicate.

I think the greatest star in American at the moment is Kevin Costner.

I'm not looking and I don't go hunting. I'm the type who's got to be found.

I meditate and do yoga. I sit cross-legged and try not to levitate too much.

Trying to be Sherlock Holmes is like trying to catch an arrow in mid-flight.

And time inherently creates a story. Things begin and they end. How they end is the story. Or maybe it's what happens between when they begin and end that's the story.

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

I was talented but crazy, semi-autistic and eccentric.

I know nothing about producing TV drama and any involvement on my part is liable to prove an obstacle to the producers, so I prefer to be a cheerleader and let them get on with it.

I approach playing acoustic guitar more of as a percussive instrument. It's fragile. I don't have a lot of finesse when it comes to my guitar playing.

To be sure, no piece of social machinery, however well constructed, can be effective unless there is back of it a will and a determination to make it work.

I was the original voice of Mattels Barbie for an 80s claymation workout video.

All becomes easy when we follow the current of opinion; it is the ruler of the world.

Our nation is turning into an idiocracy.

Inflation is the crabgrass in your savings.