I'm very conscious of the fact the directing career has taken some odd turns. Maybe there's enough bulk where I'm now pigeonholed in the 'eclectic box.'

Mozart had a tremendously fertile and creative ear for a catchy tune.

I only really cast people who are desperate to be in it - who were dying to be in it, whose talent I believed in and were dead ready to do the work that was necessary.

What happens is that with difficult processes on a film, they get very intensely compressed because a clock is ticking.

I remember the first book I bought, when I was about 11... Dad said, 'What have you got that for? What are libraries for?'

I saw Derek Jacobi play Hamlet when I was 17, and he directed me as Hamlet when I was 27, and I directed him as Claudius in 'Hamlet' when I was 35, and I'm hoping we meet again in some other production of Hamlet before we both toddle off.

I don't know that there is too far, actually. I think there's only too bad. If it's bad you've gone too far.

I've always loved the Bond films.

I was stuck in a wheelchair playing this deranged villain. I felt this mass amount of rage at being so confined. I thought, 'What can I do that is the direct opposite of this situation?' The only thing I could think of was that I could sing and dance.

The BAFTA is both absolutely fantastic and sort of meaningless at the same time.

I love thrillers, and I always have.

There are some amazing stories from all over this country, where people's work and contribution has been acknowledged. To be part of that is an absolutely fantastic feeling.

I am a long-time hide-behind-the-sofa-in-the-early-Doctor Who-in-the-1960s fan.

I don't think Hamlet is mad, nor is he predisposed to be a gloomy or tragic figure.

'The Painkiller' is a remarkable play.

I suppose, at 50, you value things in a different way. So you value connections, you value your friendships, you value your health, and you are much more aware of time passing.

I'm by no means an opera buff.

Do you know what I feel about Dr. Who's? I feel the same way as I do about the Bonds. I love them all. I love them all! I don't have favorites.

How many times do you read about 'the Cinderella story,' the story of the underdog, the story of the ordinary human being, often subjected to cruelty and ignorance and neglect, who somehow triumphs?

I'm just a normal working class boy from Belfast.

Life is surreal and beautiful.

A brother who is unhappy is a dangerous relative to have.

Sir Derek Jacobi has been an inspiration to so many actors and audiences throughout his brilliant career. To see him in Shakespeare is an event in itself.

I liked the fact that 'My Week With Marilyn' wasn't a biopic.

It's quite hard for people to just accept that they're very contradictory.

I read the final Wallander novel, 'The Troubled Man,' not long after it was published.

I'm always interested in contemporary fiction.

One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality.

The elasticity of Shakespeare is extraordinary.

If it's good art, it's good.

I did not make this a long film for its own sake. I wanted to make an entertaining film and offer it out there for those who want to see it. If word of mouth suggests there is an audience out there, hopefully their cinema will show it.

Probably 90 percent of the stuff I make has inevitably been done before... Whether it's playing Hamlet, which has been on the go for 400 years, or pieces from the cinematic world that also have been essayed before, I feel released by that.

I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part.

Music and language are a vital element. We, as actors and directors, offer it to people who want to experience it. Sometimes the actual meaning is less important than the words themselves.

Certainly, I'm excited by epic subjects. It doesn't particularly frighten me.

I fondly remember good times working on 'Thor.'

Sometimes I used to think to myself, 'Have I lost a sense of humor?' but I don't think that I have. I think one can be as snarky and sarcastic as lots of people, but I have never found that it makes me particularly happy.

I think the best actors are the most generous, the kindest, the greatest people and at their worst they are vain, greedy and insecure.

We're self obsessed and mad and stupid - not that other people can't be the same way - but the extremes are kind of honest in some mad way. Anyway, I like them.

There is some mysterious thing that goes on whereby, in the process of playing Shakespeare continuously, actors are surprised by the way the language actually acts on them.

The long version of the play is actually an easier version to follow. In all of the cut versions the intense speeches are cut too close together for the audience and the actors.

The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness.

So many plays with magic in them that would be a terrific invitation to an imaginative animation team.

If you've done a brilliant version it becomes something else.

I think A Midsummer Night's Dream would be terrific because of the transformations that occur. Or The Tempest, things like that. Extraordinary larger than life or supernatural element.

I do think that, for instance, we've been very lucky to have theatrical careers and be associated with Shakespeare which sometimes gives you a kind of bogus kudos.

Variety is very, very good. Going from medium to medium, if you get the chance to do it, from theater to television to film, which are all distinctly different, keeps me sharp. What works in one doesn't work in the other, and you have to be looking for the truth of the performance, whatever way that medium might demand.

I'm basically quite a cheerful person.

I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Anthony Hopkins. These are people who inspire the work that I do.

I don't find myself so exercised by a desperation to be new.