Fame creeps up on you.

The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.

I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.

It's easier to go from theatre to film than the other way round. In film you're absolutely loved and cossetted and cared for. In film your director makes your performance. In theatre you're carrying it all.

What's nice for me, having identified myself for years as being rather shy, is now, wherever I am, in public, there tends to be a friendly face who's pleased to see me, and I like that.

Actors don't, in fact, retire, do they? It took me a while to remember that.

If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.

You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all.

I live for the text. It's my job.

It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do.

If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star.

I've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy.

My friends are my family.

On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.

Quakers are terrific.

Some relationships get easier as you get older, depending on what sort of person you are. I don't think I've got any better at them.

I like sleeping a lot.

Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing.