If you're free of mechanical thoughts and free of knowing that your body and bat are going to be in the right position at the right time, you can freely focus on the ball. It's a great feeling.

I can't take 200 hacks in the cage before the game. Not because I'll get tired, but because I'll hurt myself! I can't do that. I might get injured.

I felt like in Tampa Bay a lot of people thought we were overachieving.

You just have to keep grinding.

You're not going to hit a bunch of three-run homers every game.

I'm not a cleanup hitter. I'm just batting fourth.

Sometimes, you just feel like you're just surviving for parts of the season.

I'm consistently making adjustments. You're going to have to do that in the postseason, too.

The one thing is the more I play second base, the more I can work on the intricate movements of that position.

I am a student of the game.

I want to try and get better in every facet of the game.

The more I spend at one position, the more I can dive into those details.

It's important to set a tone and get some momentum.

Occasionally, you have to make adjustments and try different things.

At the end of the day, you can't control the results; you can only control your effort level and your focus.

We don't even think about it out there. We just focus on doing our job. The ball is the same baseball, the game is the same game. We're going to just keep trying to do our jobs.

When I left Tampa Bay, I felt like if my career ended at that point, I'd be okay.

I love baseball history, and Wrigley Field is as good as it gets when it comes to that.

You just keep working and try to have quality at-bats.

I can tell there are times when my body's getting tired and I just need to take a day here or there and make sure I'm healthy.

I love doing impersonations of people.

One of the fears of having too much work is not having time to observe. And once you get recognised, there is nowhere for you to look any more. You can't sit on a night bus and watch it all happen.

Having your adolescence at an all-male boarding school is just crap.

I've been quite a late developer on the clothes front, but I've suddenly realised it is one of life's joys.

I'm a Prince of Wales Trust ambassador, so I'm all about giving youth an education, a voice and a chance to not take the wrong road.

Maybe it's because I was an only child, but I've always wanted kids.

I've realised now that the reality of children is you have to be in the right place with the right person.

I'm not loyal to one genre. I want to mix it up.

I've always wanted to play a spy, because it is the ultimate acting exercise. You are never what you seem.

I was brought up in a world of privilege.

Being a posh actor in England you cannot escape the class-typing from whatever side you look at it.

We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we? Especially if you are an actor.

The further you get away from yourself, the more challenging it is. Not to be in your comfort zone is great fun.

I realised quite early on that, although I wasn't trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals.

My mum and dad had worked incredibly hard to afford me an education.

I had the privilege of being able to choose, or at least have the opportunity to work at, being anything but an actor.

I drag a lot of stuff round with me that I don't need.

I drive a motorbike, so there is the whiff of the grim reaper round every corner, especially in London.

Lines are very difficult to learn.

I have actual acting scars.

Pull the hair on my head the wrong way, and I would be on my knees begging for mercy. I have very sensitive follicles.

If you have an over-preoccupation with perception and trying to please people's expectations, then you can go mad.

I was thrilled with how the first series of 'Sherlock' was received. It was such great fun to film, which makes it so rewarding when something you enjoy is so well received.

I want to be able to play trailer-bound fatties in a Judd Apatow comedy.

We're living through a time where we are fighting wars fostered by politics, admittedly not on the same scale as the First World War, but with equally tragic realities for our soldiers and their families.

'Frankenstein' was all about the idea that, through electricity and the destruction of night, man creating light and darkness, we took on god-like powers and then abused them like gods, and we are only men. That's a story about man making a man in his own image. The inversion of natural order.

My own grandfathers were a submarine commander and a 'desert rats' tank operator in the Second World War.

Someone will always hate what I say. There's always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.

Talking about class terrifies me. There is no way of winning.

One of the best things about being an actor is that it's a meritocracy.