I have a bit of pride, which is always my downfall.

I'd have described myself as a Tolkien reader before this, but now I'd describe myself as a Tolkien geek.

I can't bear shopping. I can choose clothes for my characters, but not for myself. I've got no dress sense. Or I've lost it.

I never like to go out of character when filming starts. I fear that if I do, I might not be able to pick it up again.

Do people really think that about my nose? I spent my whole life hating it, so its amusing that people like it!

I think if I had come out of drama school and been an instant Hollywood superstar, I would be taking long, leisurely holidays.

I'm not interested in building wealth, which is kind of naive and probably frowned on, living in America. It's something that people don't necessarily understand, but if I die poor, I die poor.

Whatever I lack in talent I have in stamina.

I love being grungy and dirty.

The problem with me is I read everything, but it's only the bad stuff that stays with me. It's weird, you only need to be told something once and it stays with you.

Unfortunately, my love life is nil. I'm working too much - but I would like to settle down at some point.

Immature poets imitate

Better not be at all than not be noble.

The wretched Artist himself is alternatively the lowest worm that ever crawled when no fire is in him; or the loftiest God that ever sand when the fire is going.

The poor on the borderline of starvation live purposeful lives. To be engaged in a desperate struggle for food and shelter is to be wholly free from a sense of futility

The nasheeds I do are for children, the youth, and for the older people.

Pretence about anything sometimes deceives the wisest and shrewdest man, but, however cunningly it is hidden, a child of the meanest capacity feels it and is repelled by it.

If you are on an honest journey to find yourself, you'll find God.

I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.

The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.

He smiles in my memory. A curled lip. Straight teeth. Light in his eyes. Laughing, teasing, more alive in memory than I m in reality. It was him or me. I chose me. But I feel dead too.