I think booze is a good ritual. I think knocking back a shot of whiskey does calm the nerves and helps a lot.

It's never fun to be scared [about stage fright] but I think that it is important and it's healthy to always push yourself.

You always try to play it off cool, but even if I think I have a certain laidback body language when I'm meeting someone who I greatly admire, I still have this horrible tendency to go bright red.

There's a lovely freedom of will when you approach a character that no one has really come across before, because it is your own interpretation.

The honeymoon phase always ends, for everyone.

Graduating at the age of 21 was a wonderful age to hopefully start a career.

Unfortunately I don't have my grandparents, but Mum and I are working quite well together. That's candid, that's frank. Your grandmother is never going to lie to you.

I don't really think it matters if you go into stage or TV as long as you do a bit of character work, really.

With big productions, you can sometimes get lost with the terminology and all the different departments.

I had the most fantastic time filming 'Downton.'

First and foremost, Scotland is my home, and I do consider myself Scottish, but I also feel very British, and I hope that Scotland stays within the Union. I have a real concern about independence.

Close your eyes. Meditate on your love. This is God.

You are believing not in your god but in yourself if your god knows no better than you do...and yet, in this alone, I am afraid, you have already been fooling yourself.

Goals doesn't leave you like men, goals wait, they wait for their achievers.

If one wishes to be a great project manager, one needs to talk less and write more.

China will soon emit more greenhouse gases than America, but its regime knows if it caps aspirations there will be a revolution.

This is a business, and I'll deal with it when it comes. If it comes, it comes.

In my work I've never done preliminary drawing, because it's sometimes difficult to repeat something or to continue when the urgency's gone.

Have to and get to?both are choices. One is negative and one is positive. Choose the right one and it can change your life.

The balance between confidence and humility is best learned through extensive experience and mistakes.

I may be good for nothing, but I'm never bad for nothing.