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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The heart cannot embrace what the mind does not accept.

Don't go through the process, but GROW through it.

The best thing to do is to behave in a manner befitting one's age. If you are sixteen and under try not to go bald.

I'm proud of my sexuality.

These heavy troubles are heralds of weighty mercies.

The British were sporting. They would accept a fight under almost all conditions.

Great is the power, great is the authority of a senate that is unanimous in its opinions.

Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds.

Life begins as a quest of the child for the man, and ends as a journey by the man to rediscover the child.

I was never NOT confident about doing scenes without my shirt - and now I'll find any excuse to take my shirt off!