The doctor part of me recognises the light and shade of medical life, but the writer in me is more attracted by the darkness, perhaps because it is the road less travelled.

Part of what motivated my writing was anger. I was angry that the daily misery of doctors, nurses, and patients was being trivialised into soap opera. We were made to feel bad because we were not perfect like our television counterparts. We were resentful that our patients did not get better as quickly as they did on telly - or at all.

In 'Bodies,' we had a lot of gore because other medical dramas at the time had these hospitals where even a drop of blood seemed to be too much, which is clearly not what it's like when you cut someone up.

I think you've got to be careful with gore. Different genres need different things.

Special effects are becoming more and more affordable and looking more and more like the real thing.

In 'Bodies,' we had a lot of gore because it was a medical drama. The gore was authentic.

'Cardiac Arrest' was the first British drama to use a lot of medical jargon. 'ER' began the following year and was the first American drama to do that.

If you look at American medical fiction written by doctors, like 'The House of God' by Samuel Shem and 'The Blood of Strangers' by Frank Huyler, both have themes of cynicism and dysfunction running through them that you won't find in 'ER.' You find it in 'Scrubs,' but because that's a comedy, it gets away with it.

British drama can compete with America creatively. But the two systems are very different.

'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is a novel that constitutes a milestone of English literature.

It doesn't excite me as a writer to write some swearing or sex scenes, because they don't have any emotional content.

What makes an audience watch something and care about the characters is the emotional life of the characters.

My brother's my teacher, my mentor, and we both learnt all the acting basics from our father.

Imperfection and perfection go so hand in hand, and our dark and our light are so intertwined, that by trying to push the darkness or the so-called negative aspects of our life to the side... we are preventing ourselves from the fullness of life.

The way to change the world is through individual responsibility and taking local action in your own community.

Poverty is a very complicated issue, but feeding a child isn't.

Live like you're already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.

We're here for such a short period of time. Live like you're already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.

Most cynics are really crushed romantics: they've been hurt, they're sensitive, and their cynicism is a shell that's protecting this tiny, dear part in them that's still alive.

Sticking with a marriage. That's true grit, man.

I come from a family of teasers myself. My grandfather was from Liverpool, and he had a dry sense of humor, and he would tease us terribly. My brother Beau was so skilled in his teasing that he could get a rise out of me by simply pointing at me.

Movies are like magic tricks.

Sometimes I think about retiring but not stopping work. Just 're-tiring' - put on some new tires and go on to do something else.

The more space and emptiness you can create in yourself, then you can let the rest of the world come in and fill you up.

I don't dig Trump or follow what he has to say, but I find it fascinating that he's surfaced in the political arena. But I'm a Hillary supporter, and I don't go the Trump way.

The Widelux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn't accurate, and there's no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that.

It's a wonderful metaphor, catching a wave, for how you can look at other challenges in your life.

Words fall short sometimes.

I've got to watch my back, so I can't put on too much weight.

As far as the lack of hits goes, I think perhaps it's because I've played a lot of different roles and have not created a persona that the public can latch on to. I have played everything from psychopathic killers to romantic leading men, and in picking such diverse roles I have avoided typecasting.

I have hesitation making any kind of decision, really in my life. I'm really slow at it.

There's kind of a Zen aspect to bowling. The pins are either staying up or down before you even throw your arm back. It's kind of a mind-set. You want to be in this perfect mind-set before you released the ball.

Yeah, I loved Ray Bradbury.

Your part can be the king, but unless people are treating you like royalty, you ain't no king, man.

If you open your heart, then the object of your love becomes so precious because you are so open. And that philosophy, that caring, spreads.

Eating ice cream and not exercising is great. The downside is your health isn't so good.

I'm not counting any chickens.

Thoughts will change and shift just like the wind and the water when you're on the boat; thoughts are no different than anything else.

There is one particular argument that I call our 'ancient war.' If it could be summed up in one phrase, it would be, 'You don't get it. You don't understand what it's like to be me living with you.' There is such truth in that statement. None of us can really appreciate what it is like to be the other person, what that point of view feels like.

There are so many things that pop up. If you are paying attention, you can learn every second of the day. Life is my guru.

I've produced a couple of films and really enjoyed starting it from the very beginning and seeing it all the way through to the end; that was very gratifying.

You don't want to vilify your ego.

My wife, whenever I'd go off to work and I'd be kind of anxious, she'll say, 'Remember, have fun.' Oh, I forgot, thanks for the reminder. Because sometimes we do forget. We take it all too seriously and there's a lot of joy to be had wherever you are.

Every time I walk down one of those red carpets, you think I'd be used to it after all these years, but it's like it's happening for the first time.

Well, I'm not a big sports fan.

I've been playing since I was a teenager, and I put out a few albums when I was younger. When 'Crazy Heart' took off, it gave me another reason to get into music in a more serious fashion.

Nowadays it seems more and more like the 'business' in 'show business' is underlined, and there are campaigns, and it's all part of getting people in to see the movies.

I remember being on a black-and-white set all day and then going out into daylight and being amazed by the colour.

It's easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.

As an actor, a role can be a great excuse not to be in shape. I mean, you wouldn't want to see the Dude with a six-pack, so you eat that Haagen-Dazs. My weight goes up and down.