I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

There were no spells at my school, just a smack in the mouth.

I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.

There's no subtext in Harry Potter really; it's all magic, anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it.

I just play him as myself, I don't ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.

I am a theatre actor, but the last ten years I've taken parts in movies because it keeps me in money.

I promise myself that I would go and do a play every year.

Richard was in heavy, heavy costume, he could hardly sit, you know, and I turned up and they put me in two layers of silk, so I played him much lighter - you know, floating around in a pair of slippers, a bit of a hippy.

Television has dried up for my generation, so it's plays and films.

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.

I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.

I just hate the idea of being well known. I know that is almost impossible if you're an actor who has done okay, but I've always fought against it.

I live in fear of being a contented passenger. I'd rather get parts I can't play.

I'm an anorak. I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.

I'm very flower-like. I love classical music. I go to ballet and I cry. There's nothing so beautiful.

I've always tried to be an actor who... I just plod on and try to keep my mouth shut, mind my own business. I find the whole thing about people's lives... I can't understand it. I'm always astonished that people want to know anything about me.

I've played quite a lot of crooks and killers, and that's quite interesting. Then Dumbledore is the complete opposite, isn't he? He's a nice old man.

Maybe that is why kids like Dumbledore: because he is funny rather than a miserable old sod with a long white beard.

My only memories of school are of being beaten, of being hit in the playground, of masters poking their fingers in my chest all day.

Oh yeah, I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

Paul Schofield said something like, 'If I'm not acting in a play, I don't really exist.' Those weren't the exact words, but he meant it's only when I'm acting in a play that I've got something to say about the world. And then why should I talk, when people can come to see it?

Television has dried up for my generation, so it's plays and films. You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.

There are more important ways of earning a living, aren't there? Like being a neurosurgeon. But some plays are very important, aren't they?

There's no subtext in 'Harry Potter,' really; it's all magic - anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn't say much for acting, does it?

When I was doing 'Tales from Hollywood' at the National, I was invited to dinner by the choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan. He told me I had the heart of a dancer and asked me if I'd like to come on at the end of 'Romeo and Juliet' as a friar. I said I'd love to, but sadly, MacMillan died shortly after.

Yeah, I like causing trouble. It's the teddy boy in me. I used to be a teddy boy. Feeling slightly inferior and wanting to cause a bit of bother and get some action going on in the room rather than get bored stiff.

I've developed a self-discipline since the time I was a child.

They couldn't wait to get me out. My dad found my place, my mom helped me pack, and my brother was making architectural plans for my bedroom. It was just what you do at 18.

Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.

Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm.

We can bear to be deprived of everything but our self-conceit.

In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge.

I hate to think of the day when nobody remembers me as an actor and I can't get good tables in restaurants.

W. E. B Dubois used the NAACP platform for two decades to discredit the character, reputation, and fund-raising efforts of capitalist and Tuskegee University founder, Booker T. Washington.

Working with Bruno Mars would be really awesome. I'm such a fan of his, and I love that he's a real artist.

There are certain things people always bring up with me. The accident. The drugs. And how tight my pants were.

I had a mystical experience when I was in my late teens, early 20s, and I spent years trying to recapture that.

He who remains calm while those around him panic probably doesnt know whats going on.

The unmerited fear of genetically modified organism crops threatens scientific advancements in biotechnology needed to meet the growing global demand for safe and affordable food.

On the Internet, news is consumed a la carte. If someone shows up on the main page of a website and doesn't see anything of interest, they leave. This negatively impacts ad revenues. The solution on the Internet is to pack news websites full of things that will draw people in, regardless of whether they are news or not.

My house is full of antics, mayhem, foolishness, carrying on, cutting up, shucking and jiving, and I have that whether cameras are there or not. Our youngest just had us up with her shenanigans and hijinks all night. So, it's all the time, even off camera.

Not that I want the current president killed. I will, for the record and for the FBI agent assigned to read this and make sure I mean no harm, clearly state that while I am obsessed with death, I am against it.

I've never done a period piece. That's something I'd be really interested in doing.

I never had a strategy about my life. I didn't have enough information to have a strategy. I'm the first person in my family to go to college. I had no family mentors.

Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it but when it becomes chronic it is ridiculed and rightly.

There is but little room for doubt that Egypt led the way in the creation of the earliest known group of civilizations which arose on both sides of the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia in the fourth millennium B.C.

Joy is unlimited, because each shining thought of love extends its being and creates more of itself.