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.

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

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.

Literature is light.

This world is your mirror. Wherever you go, you see a reflection of your thoughts.

Every good tree shall bear fruits in the sacred season.

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

My job is to throw passes and be a leader.

I have always paid careful attention to social and economic conflicts, to the dialectic - if we can call it that - between high and low. Maybe it's because I was not born or brought up in affluence.

I'm starting to mistrust my judgment.

I've just got to maintain my passion for what I do.

I want to be a living work of art.

I've made many documentaries, but prostitution was the hardest in terms of gaining the trust of the people being filmed.