I am fascinated by Omega's history. Particularly the First World War stuff, when they made watches for the flying corps, and the NASA side of it.

I find in film acting that however many years you have done it for, you can feel totally relaxed and at ease with the people around you, absolutely wonderful, then roll camera and a little part of you goes, 'Ugh'. It is learning how to manage that.

The percentage of actors employed is pretty small, and if you're lucky enough to have a good run at it, you do have a sense of responsibility.

I'm by nature someone that quite likes to understand how things are working, likes some sense of structure, and I've fallen into the worst possible trade for that.

Actors are actors, and there should be a complete fluidity for anyone to play anything.

For a year after I left Cambridge, I had an agent, and I was working in a pub and doing waitering. But I could stay at home rent-free.

That's the reality of my life - I do normal things and then get to go to film festivals and wear borrowed clothes and turn up at premieres and talk about things I am passionate about. But then you click back to normality and your family and friends.

There is a certain amount of commerce in the film industry in as much as you have value, and for a moment, your value goes up, then it all disappears again.

I feel like J. K. Rowling's world is one that is owned by everyone in some ways. People have grown up with it and have such a sense of that universe that there's something kind of wonderful seeing everyone get involved.

Actors who perhaps are super-confident and have absolute belief in themselves I always admire, because I can't really be like that. Because you never know what's right: what you feel inside versus what is portrayed.

I've never been someone that was sort of blessed with an innate talent of just being able to do things. I had to work at it and learn from mistakes.

What is important is for me to do my best work on camera. The camera is inches away from you and sees every micromovement of every muscle of your eye. And if you're not relaxed, the camera sees it.

If you are playing someone living, it is a different type of judgment. However much work you do, it is not a documentary. There will be things you can't get right, and ultimately, you have to take a leap because - you weren't there.

The problem with motor neurone disease is they don't know when it starts. People go into hospital having fallen but get wrapped up and sent away, unless they're seen by an incredibly astute doctor. It is only when several things begin to go wrong that it'll be diagnosed.

I've worked with some actors who have such thick skins and think they are so extraordinary. I'll think, 'Have you stopped learning?' They stop listening to directors or other actors and do the same thing again and again.

A movie star is someone who has to open a film to gazillions of dollars. I'm just trying to pay my mortgage.

The thing about motor neuron disease, once a muscle stops working, it doesn't start again.

That's a lovely starting point for me as an actor: the question of what will we - or can we - do with this lot of years with which we're blessed? More than my other films, 'The Danish Girl' is about the gigantic risks involved in being true to one's self.

The question of what it is to live an 'authentic life', that's a complicated one.

I try genuinely, when I'm playing a character, to not judge them and just to inhabit someone as how one sees them. That being said, you also want to make sure that you don't blur the edges of people too much because humans are naughty and complicated beings.

It feels like a simple human right to be able to be yourself, and yet, what trans people have to go through in order to get to there, it can be so complicated.

When I read 'Fantastic Beasts,' the world that J. K. Rowling has created is so wonderful.

My favorite film is probably the finale - 'Deathly Hallows: Part 2'.

I'm one of those people, when I see a film, I believe it to be true. You know, sort of the authenticity of the camera and seeing things on a screen.

Our dream as actors is to tell interesting stories about interesting people.

My dad works in finance, so he kept giving me the stats: only one in a hundred actors makes it. He'd ask, 'Have you thought about producing?'

I draw and play the piano badly. But when I'm doing those things, I'm concentrating so hard there's no room for worry. I find that onstage, too.

What I love about acting is trying things and screwing up, then trying again, all in this protected little bubble. That's living the dream.

There's always been a relationship between the film world and fashion.

I'll always find the things that make a role complicated!

'Animal Ark', was when I was fourteen years old, and it was an ITV children's program, and I did an episode called, 'Bunnies in the Bathroom.' And I'm not sure if it was my finest hour.

It can be a miserable profession, acting, because you always want what you can't have.

In England, we have this saying about Marmite: people either love it or hate it. That's like a lot of the movie work I've done. People either find it repulsive or find it really interesting and get engaged in it.

I wish they'd build a ski jump at the Grand Canyon; it'd be fantastic.

Where is it written that the Olympics are only for winners?

Resilience can go an awful long way.

After my ski jumping career finished, I went back to school to study law, and now I travel between five to 20 times a year doing after-dinner speaking, motivational talks, appearances, openings, TV and radio shows.

Getting to the Olympic Games was my gold medal.

Maybe I am a little bit of a clown, but I am also a serious sportsman.

I'm the Eagle: I can fly.

I had no money, no training facilities, no snow, no ski jumps, no trainer, but I still managed to ski jump for my country - and getting there was my gold medal.

I made my dream come true despite all the obstacles - no money, no training, no skis, no snow.

I've never really let any kind of negative things affect me, generally. I would take a positive out of the most desperately horrible situation.

In my case, there are only two kinds of hope - Bob Hope and no hope.

That James Bond movie? The one where Bond skis off a cliff, shucks his skis, and parachutes to the ground? That's for me. That's what I want to be. A stuntman in a Bond movie.

If there were some people who considered me a joke, I'm sorry about that. But I did not do it for any other reason except that I loved to ski jump, and I had hopes that by my doing it, other people in my country would take up the sport.

Both parents were hard-working and made me work for my pocket money by doing household chores. That taught me the value of money and gave me a strong work ethic.

If you have got a dream and you've got ambition, then go for it. You know, unless you try, you'll never know.

I was a true amateur and embodied what the Olympic spirit is all about. To me, competing was all that mattered.

Americans are very much 'Win! Win! Win!' In England, we don't give a fig whether you win. It's great if you do, but we appreciate those who don't.