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.
I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.
There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
Do you know that moment when you paint a landscape as a child and, when you're maybe under seven or something, the sky is just a blue stripe across the top of the paper? And then there's that somewhat disappointing moment when the teacher tells you that the sky actually comes down in amongst all the branches. And it's like life changes at that moment and becomes much more complicated and a little bit more boring, as it's rather tedious to fill in the branches.
We're dead as a species if we don't tell stories, because then we don't know who we are.
I don't play villains, I play very interesting people
Give me a window and I'll stare out it.
I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it's a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties.
If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.
I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.
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 would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.
I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.
I'm a lot less serious than people think, it's probably because the way my face is put together.
Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.
I like it when stories are left open.
I mean, language fascinates me anyway, and different words have different energies and you can change the whole drive of a sentence.
Acting is mostly about listening. If you just focus in on what the other person is saying, acting takes care of itself to quite a large extent.
That's it then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.
All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.
I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney.
If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.
Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.
I have every sympathy for writers. It's a mystery to me what they do. I can edit. I can cross out and say, 'I'm not saying that' or, 'How about we move this to here? Wouldn't that make that bit of the story better?' But where any of it comes from is beyond me. I will never write a play or a novel.
I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.
