We have one life and we should cherish it and make it the best we can.

When I came to London as a young man, I was very excited by it and that's never gone away.

When I discovered acting, I decided that's what I wanted to do above everything else. It was the first time I was passionate about anything.

When you are an actor, rejection and disappointment are an occupational hazard.

You want people to identify with the person on the screen or in the theater, but you don't want them to identify with you as a person.

All my good friends are actors, really. It's different when you have a family, but they're still the people I meet most often. My best friend is Ian Hart, but then I've known him since I was five.

As a director, your work is finished only when it's on the screen. But I will always be an actor who occasionally directs. And no, I have no interest in directing myself. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on both jobs at once.

I owe my mum a sense of family. She has kept our family together. I have two brothers and a sister, and they all live a stone's throw away from each other in Liverpool.

I think the corruption of power is very interesting, and I think the idea that power is something that... You know, when people want power, they're a certain individual. When people acquire power by accident, they're different again.

I'm the youngest of four kids. There's something in me that will always be the youngest child, will always look up to people when they don't necessarily need it.

I've got a great family and a beautiful house. I feel very lucky as far as my lifestyle is concerned. I'm not really interested in fame and all its trappings.

It takes a long time to drag myself out of bed, and at night I'm buzzing. As a young man it was helpful, but now I'd like to be tired when I go to bed and alive in the morning.

The biggest difference between British TV and American TV is money. But what money doesn't do on American TV, which I thought it would, is buy you time. You don't get more time. You get more toys.

The great thing about coming from where I come from - Liverpool and my family - is that we're very close. I have a great relationship with my siblings and their kids.

The reason I wanted to start directing is that as an actor I felt I came into a job late. There's a whole team of people who have been working on it for months before you start. You have this really intense period of filming and then you leave it, knowing that the director will work on it for another few months.

When I told my parents I wanted to be an actor, it was like saying I wanted to be an astronaut. Not because it was highfalutin' in any way - just because they didn't know anybody in that field. They were anxious of a profession they knew nothing about.

All actors think every job will be their last.

'Evil' is quite a blanket term. People aren't the demonic characters we would like them to be sometimes.

I always have to go out to work even if it's just a desk somewhere or an office or the British Library.

I always try to put myself in the way of surprise as much as possible. My ambition is to keep challenging myself. I like that journey of discovery.