I think drag is universal, no matter who does it. I mean, yeah, I am homosexual, but I think everybody likes to toy with their image. I love those guys. I love Milton Berle and Flip Wilson and all those people.

There's not another lip-synch song on the planet, in the history of lip-synching songs, that has been lip-synched more than 'I Will Survive.'

Once you clear out from your consciousness things that no longer matter, you're able to make room for other things.

I'm only really interested in taking a part if it's nothing like me.

My auditions for drama school were miserable, but one thing I had on my side, although I had no experience or skill or training, was that I wanted to learn everything.

I like Scottish people because they feel very true. They're always level and straight. They get a reputation for being hardened because of it, but I find them to be scrupulously honest people.

I don't think the idea of working in Hollywood really exists anymore. I think you work in films, and where the film is shot is where it's shot. The studio system doesn't really exist.

I really love living in cities where the people living above, below and next to you are from totally different worlds to you.

I don't have a publicist. I don't go to events or self-promote, or endorse things, or whatever it is people are meant to do in that world.

It's great to sit and talk about the films and the people I work with, rather than where I buy my socks or whatever.

People say I have a scary face. I find that to be a mixed compliment.

You fire blanks, but the guns eject real brass, hot cartridges. They're, like, 400 degrees.

I only do the press for the work. I don't have a publicist. I don't go to events or self-promote or endorse things or whatever it is people are meant to do in that world.

This industry is too bonkers to understand. Every single part is completely different.

I've never thought it was a good idea to act back-to-back.

If you are going to have any chance of replicating life, you need to live it.

I get bored quickly. Always have. Short attention span.

That routine thing is not comforting to me. It's the opposite to that.

I find it quite unsettling if I'm doing the same thing that I did yesterday.

I was bullied a lot... doing anything overly well was punished by the kids.

I wasn't interested in football. It made me different. I wore glasses, had bad hair, a funny name, you name it.

I believe in allowing an audience the opportunity to make up their own mind.

Intrigue is so much more effective. I don't like to be over-prescriptive of an audience. The same with a book or with art - people shouldn't read too much before they explore.

It's all very brilliant to build bridges and buildings, but long after we're gone, it will be the natural things in this world which will still be here.

If I make a film about now, the minute it was done, it wouldn't be about now; it'd be about then.

The most contemporary film I can think of is your standard romantic comedy, but the minute you make them, they already look so aged.

Some are in it for the money, which is fine. Some of them are in it to be a movie star; that's another reason. Some actors - and this I never understand - will only play likeable characters. And if they're not likeable, they change them to be heroic.

I guess the reason I wanted to be an actor was that it felt like it would offer something different all the time.

'We' is a difficult word for me. I don't know if I feel 'we' about anything.

I got the 'I don't want the normal job' bug. At home, we have countless career advisors who would tell us to work in department stores and stay below the bar and not overreach our grasp. I didn't believe any of them.

I find dipping one's toe into all of these people's lives is one of the major exciting points of being an actor. This dilettantism.

I love learning things, whether it's a language or Philippine knife-fighting or the Viennese waltz.

I have to be absolutely drawn to the project. If you're ashamed or bored by it at the beginning, it's going to be a pretty nightmarish thing.

I've never got on with recipes. Free yourself - throw them out!

I don't do glamorous things.

I really enjoy the fact that the very boring, normal person that I am isn't kind of interesting to anyone. It's fine by me.

I've never been to war, and I would never presume to fully understand the horrors that that kind of experience can impart.

I'm a big fan of imagination. I think it's the strongest tool we have, and there are some things that you just can't practice.

I never want to overstay my welcome for any character. I would rather people are excited by the ideas a character generates in them rather than feeling bored and wishing he would just go away.

Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.

One of the things I noticed in my career that gave me a lot of happiness early on was realising we don't have any control.

I'm studying Krav Maga, which is an Israeli form of self defense. It's very deadly and without rules.

I'm a bit of a technophobe.

Sport is not my thing.

What theatre people love about theatre - and I totally understand it, I just don't share it - is that they feel they mint something afresh every night. Because I would rather do something until I've done it and then know it's done. New day, next thing!

I think saying you're bad at something is rather wonderful because then it doesn't matter anymore.

I'm a terrible dancer.

When I come home, all I do is cook. I love cooking, so I go to markets, buy food, cook it for friends. I love doing that.

The one thing I couldn't imagine is stopping still.

There are some great actors I don't want to meet because I don't want to know how they did it. I don't want to know anything about their personal life, and the illusion, or whatever it is, the shape-shiftery magic stuff that they do, which is my joy.