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" I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown. "

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" I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There's still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy. "

" As a drama student I got into Thirties and Forties suits. "

" Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that. "

Not Good Enough

" You take what you know, and you put it through your own prism. If I play characters that break down or cry, it's Gary Oldman crying; it's not the character crying. "

" I grew up in Deptford in south London, and at that time I used to wear toppers, loon pants and tonic suits from shops like Take 6 and Topman. I was a bit of a soul boy, but I had a very eclectic taste in music - I was into James Brown and Bowie; and I was the only kid in the neighbourhood who would also be listening to Chopin. "

" Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing. "

" I had a guitar when I was 6 or 7, a plastic guitar with the Beatles' faces on it. It would be a collector's item now. It would fetch a hefty sum, I imagine. "

" There will always be spies. We have to have them. Without them we wouldn't have got Osama bin Laden - it took us years, but it happened. "

" The thing a drama school can't give you is instinct. It can sharpen instinct but that can't be taught, and you have to have intuition. It's an essential ingredient. "

" Over the years, I have been asked to play these sort of scary frenetic characters that express their emotions physically. "

" It's funny: I'm a lifelong musician, but because I principally play the piano it's been a solitary thing. "

" I wasn't ever a huge fan of comics. Just not one of those kids, you know? "

" And costume is so important for an actor. It absolutely helps to get into character; it's the closest thing to you, it touches you. Some actors like to go into make-up and then put their clothes on, but I like to dress first; that's my routine. "

" My passion and energy get mistaken for anger. "

" I can't imagine childhood without 'Planet of the Apes.' I was nine or ten when the first one came out. "

" You can play older than yourself. You can play younger than yourself up to a point, and then that just becomes impossible because you carry a weight with you that you can't shift, unless you have very boyish looks. "

" It's a shame about California, and particularly about L.A., where they've demolished so many landmarks. It's a bit of a disease there, where if anything is over 30 years old, they sort of knock it down and replace it. It's a strange town, it's this sprawling suburb, and then there's a city, the old town. "

" 'Nil By Mouth' was a bit autobiographical, but as I always pointed out at the time, that's not my dad. "

" When I decided that I might want to do acting for a living - I don't know where it really came from, since there was no school play or any of that - my mom gave me her blessing. I had to get a scholarship - that was the only way I could have gone to drama school. "

" I'm rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room. "

" I tend to read non-fiction. "

" I just think political correctness is crap. "

Political Correctness

" I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: 'I've crossed oceans of time to find you.' It was worth playing the role just to say that line. "

" I like a cheese and pickle. Nice cheese and pickle on a real old-fashioned bread. Ploughman's lunch. "

" At 23 it was all about acting. Today it's getting my kids to school, making sure that they've done their homework. I'm in my fifties, and I'm turning into a square. "

" Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you're really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour. "

" That's what sets apart one actor from another, and that you can't teach. You can't give someone that. When you're working, putting a character together, or in a scene, that's where things will happen that you have to have the intuition to notice them, and to register them. "

" Your own barometer is all you have to go by, and often what makes a good director is knowing when not to say something. On occasions you can find yourself on a film set where the person who is wearing the director's hat is only trying to justify his position. "

" There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.' "

" But you see, I have played more good guys than I have played villains. "