“Besides, isn't it confoundedly easy to think you're a great man if you aren't burdened with the slightest idea that Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante or Napoleon ever lived?”

“Only the person who has experienced light and darkness, war and peace, rise and fall, only that person has truly experienced life.”

“Time to leave now, get out of this room, go somewhere, anywhere; sharpen this feeling of happiness and freedom, stretch your limbs, fill your eyes, be awake, wider awake, vividly awake in every sense and every pore.”

"The last thing I would attempt to do is to buy clothes for a child I didn't know well."

"Most actors will tell you they have some sort of dream of doing something other than what they're doing."

"It used to be that I was always paranoid or a loser or something so there's usually something that you seem to associate yourself with at one time or another."

"I'd love to try my hand at something else."

"I don't want to sound smug but I am reasonably satisfied with how it's gone. I think it's fine."

"I do think I'm a character actor."

"I do notice that when I've been away and I come back to London. People look at you. People are ready to pick arguments."

"Hollywood hasn't aggressively pursued me. Neither have I aggressively pursued Hollywood."

"Bridget Jones is part of literary lore now and actually to be a part of it is enormously flattering."

"As much as the next person, I want to be approved of, but I'm not greedy for that stuff."

"We've always been involved with America - I have a son who lives there and it's a big part of my life."

"My singing voice is somewhere between a drunken apology and a plumbing problem."

"I was delighted to become a popular-culture reference point. I'm still delighted about it actually, and I still find it to be weird."

"Some people would say comedy draws from some dark places, from your dark stuff. Life's great optimists aren't necessarily the funniest people."

"I feel more comfortable in drama. Comedy is a high-wire act. I find it stressful. It's a precision science in a way."

"In filming, you're waiting - you're waiting for lights, you're waiting for people to set things up - and when you're not waiting, you're repeating."

"I would definitely do TV, at the drop of a hat, if I was offered a good role."

"I love 'Manhattan', and I know it's not one of Woody's favorites."

"I backpacked through France and Italy in my teens, and then I was at Cannes with the first movie I did in '84."

"Growing up, my mates and I would have rather been Sid Vicious or members of the Royal Family."

"If I were to write a book about the progress of getting to a third film, it would be a long one."