My sister and I both benefited hugely from the great security that our parents had given us, and then we went off and squandered it all rushing around in showbiz.
I'll have you know that as a young man, I spent an entire year as a woman in a world tour of 'As You Like It.' I played Celia.
Nothing else is as fulfilling as playing a part in which you are able to have a significant say in the creative process all the way through. How many actors get to do that? It's extremely rare.
In a thriving culture, you celebrate your achievements. In an exhausted one, you proclaim your disadvantages.
I'm no Kenneth Branagh or Ben Stiller. I'm not that single-minded, 'I'm producing it, directing it, and starring in it' kind of person; that's not me.
They haven't said it, but let's be clear: I would never have been on the list for James Bond, so I'm not labouring under that misapprehension.
In the periods of my life when I've had least contact with the Church, I've always assumed a belief in God is a solid thing, but clearly it's a relationship; it has good days and bad days.
Acting is a general thing; it's not like being a primary artist like a painter or writer which stands the test of time. I don't think acting stands the test of time, but it can capture the mood of the moment, which is in itself very exciting, but it rarely lasts.
I am single. Acting can make it hard to have profound relationships if you're not careful. You get into this pattern of three-month, four-month jobs and 'what's the next adventure.'
Somehow I find it easier to inhabit characters if they are a little bit pathetic. I do seem to have an affinity with pathetic people.
I've always wanted to do a real comedy. I haven't done enough, and it seems silly not to do more, considering the fact that people tend to laugh at me.
My parents are very lovely people - the sort of people that one should aspire to be like, really.
Obviously I'd love to have kids and all that. Luckily, as a man, there's not such an egg timer on it, but I'd like to be able to pick them up without Nurofen first.
I prefer to be flippant about acting, just in case I'm rubbish.
The danger with playing a part that defines you is that it swallows up everything else.
My father was ethnically Jewish, but his family converted to Catholicism.
For me, faith is more about aspiration than complacency - the smug satisfaction that other people find distasteful.
People behave differently to TV stars and film stars; it's to do with the scale of the medium. Film stars get hushed awe, TV stars get slapped on the back. Neither is good for you. Famous people don't hear the word 'no' enough.
Stories about vicars are always being told because they're at the heart of our society. Vicars touch all parts of the community and see life in all its extremity.
When we get christened or married or die, we drift naturally in the direction of the church. And in moments of crisis, when our spiritual Tom-Tom is no longer telling us what to do, we find ourselves scrabbling at the vicarage door.
