I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.

From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.

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

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

I love working in New York theater.

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 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 have a love-hate relationship with white silk.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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 am the character you are not supposed to like.

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.

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

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

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

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

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