The reason I've never gone for pilot season even as a younger actor, and wouldn't entertain that sort of thing now, is the idea of signing a piece of paper that binds me for six or seven years.

'Sherlock' is one of the biggest things I will do, ever - we could never have predicted that level of insanity around the series.

If you want your film to be instantly green-lit, your first approach is not to go to a relatively unknown English actor. They're not going to throw millions of dollars at you for that.

Acting is the only thing I'm even vaguely good at and acting is something that I think I do know about.

I like being called 'Mr. Freeman' occasionally.

I have a very extreme state of mind. Things are very black or very white.

Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?

I am a fan of the Coen brothers. I'm not a fanatic. I'm a big admirer. They create unique worlds, and there is a real atmosphere to their films. Not everyone can get that. That's a massive part of their appeal: you can recognise them. Like all the great directors or artists, you know it when you see it.

I grew up in the suburbs, so I remember arriving at Waterloo and seeing Big Ben and the coloured lights on top of the Southbank Centre and thinking, 'Wow!'

I love that pre-mod jazz look of the late Fifties, the Steve McQueen style that influenced the British modernists.

If I could get bands to come and play in my house, I'd like that.

I've got a stag weekend coming up and I've said I'm not doing anything more than a few drinks. I won't have it. I'll go home and watch Antiques Roadshow.

Most people have a passive relationship with music and clothes, with culture. But music was my first contact with anything creative. Music is it, as far as I'm concerned.

People misunderstand me.

This isn't meant to make me sound interesting and rock 'n' roll, but I wouldn't want to live with me a lot of the time.

You could say I'm a mod, but with a small 'm'; I don't wear a parka, but I do question what I wear and what I listen to, which is what it's all about.

Most actors are either a shower of bloody scruffs or think they should dress like Hamlet off stage.

Being a mod is more of a sensibility than a style.

I only really watch my own films, I don't watch any other films and I don't particularly like any other actors.

I can spot someone with similar fashion sense to me a mile off.

I love a good suit.

When I wear jeans I want to look like a man, not a child.

I was probably cool around the end of 2002.

I'm not posh or common, I'm in between.

My mum was Labour-voting, but wanted us to know we were important. Basically, everyone's equal, but you, my children, are a bit better.

I don't think it was a surprise that I ended up as an actor, and it was anything but a disappointment.

I've always got my eye on my deathbed.

There are still things technically about films that I think are a mystery to me and I want to remain a mystery. I don't particularly want to know what everyone's job is because I've got lines to learn.

I've got no anti-America or anti-Hollywood kick, it's just that I never wanted to go and kick my heels around L.A. for six months hoping something would happen.

There is nothing far-fetched about disappointment as a subject for comedy. It's something we are all too familiar with.

Comedy can't be about continuous success.

I look like the man in the moon.

I love home. I'd rather be at home than anywhere else.

I like out, I like the outside world.

I buy DVDs. I don't really buy CDs unless they're for other people.

I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerised rather than mechanised.

Although there's an inherent light-heartedness to 'Sherlock,' I slightly err towards not doing the comedy.

Please God, I'll never be in a war zone, but everything I sort of know about people who come back is that it's a hard transition to make. I mean, even if you've not been in a war, even if you've just been in the Forces, you come back and probably have more fights in civilian life.

It's more fun playing someone who isn't just a bad guy.

I've tried not to treat Shakespeare as a marble giant.

Rehearsals are one of my favourite things in the world.

You don't want your children to look at you like you are anything special other than their dad.

In my life, the strongest evidence of any fandom is 'Sherlock' - 'Hobbit' fans are positively restrained.

True heroics, obviously, is not the absence of fear, but having that fear and doing something anyway.

I value being able to go into a record shop and people leaving me alone.

Humour is - how do I say this without sounding pompous - it's a huge part of my life.

I read 'Animal Farm' when I was 11, and it remained my favorite book, really.

It's a funny thing, 'The Office,' because millions and millions and millions and millions of people didn't watch it. But culturally, it is more of a phenomenon than almost anything else I can remember as far as British television is concerned.

I have never been in, nor have I had any strong particular desire to be in, what is termed a costume drama, but I keep forgetting to think of 'Charles II' as a costume drama.

Fans want to see a story with characters, and they want to see a story.