And it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.

Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.

All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.

Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.

I don't think it's right that everybody knows everything about me.

I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.

I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.

I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.

I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting.

I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic.

I'm always aware of the camera and it feels like that's the audience.

I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.

If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.

If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.

If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.

If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there's only one topic of conversation.

It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.

Market forces impose certain rules before a film can actually get made.

Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive.

My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.

My parents certainly didn't have anything to do with the theater. I'm some kind of accident.

Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.

On film you put all your energies into a single glance.

One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.

Somebody with Debbie Reynolds' features doesn't get cast as the Wicked Witch.

Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.

The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial.

There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.

What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves.

What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing.

When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.

Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

You can lull the paying customers as long as they get slapped.

I never talk about 'Harry Potter' because I think that would rob children of something that's private to them. I think too many things get explained, so I hate talking about it.

I am the character you are not supposed to like.

I'm still living the life where you get home and open the fridge and there's half a pot of yogurt and a half a can of flat Coca-Cola.

I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.

I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.

It's a nightmare to sit and watch a film that I'm in. There's a horrible inescapability to it.

I do feel more myself in America. I can regress there, and they have roller-coaster parks.

On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.

I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time.

Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.

It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.

I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.

I approach every part I'm asked to do and decide to do from exactly the same angle: who is this person, what does he want, how does he attempt to get it, and what happens to him when he doesn't get it, or if he does?

I'm very aware that when one is acting in the theater, you do become kind of animal about it. And you're reliant on instincts rather than tact a lot of the time.

I love working in New York theater.

You know, London is so sprawling, and you can sometimes forget that anybody else is on a stage anywhere else.

So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.