You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.

There are some actors who are rehearsal actors, and some who are not. I am not. Having said that, I don't know what I am talking about.

I'm an anorak. I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.

There's no subtext in Harry Potter really; it's all magic, anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it.

Like a heartbeat. Something inside me. Some dream. I think it's being a dreamer as a child. Dreamy kids become actors, don't they?

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.

I'm very flower-like. I love classical music. I go to ballet and I cry. There's nothing so beautiful.

Television has dried up for my generation, so its plays and films.

There were no spells at my school, just a smack in the mouth.

I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.

I promise myself that I would go and do a play every year.

They were determined to find something mechanically wrong with him - because broken machines are easier to fix. p303

It isnt for wantof something to say--something to tell you--something you should know--but to detain you--keep you from going--feeling myself hereas long as you are--as long as you are

I have a zombie apocalypse kit at my house. I've got freeze dried food, I've got a real deal medical kit, like, a doctor could perform a surgery with this medical kit. I got all kinds of everything.

Look at what your idea of success would be. The more that you take in external motivators, the more it reduces your ultimate satisfaction because it doesn't come from inside.

It's something you can actually control. With writing, it feels like it's given to you, and when the good stuff hits, it feels like it's coming from some other planet.And you're just channeling it.

I received an OBE from the Queen, which probably doesn't mean anything in America but is quite nice in England - the Order of the British Empire for services to drama.

For a few seconds they looked silently into each other's eyes, and the distant and impossible suddenly became near, possible, and inevitable.

I don't like stories where I'm being given pages and pages of detail.

What connects two thousand years of genocide? Too much power in too few hands.

Cry later, but for now, let's enjoy the laughter.