If you want to be an actor, you must have total, ruthless commitment to your art. Don't be ambitious for fame or TV or movies. Art is a jealous mistress and will brook no competitors. Study all the time. Never stop reading. Never stop learning speeches. It will fill you up - define and refine you.

There's a lot of talk about people being abused on Twitter, women being savagely insulted and degraded. I think, 'Why get into that in the first place?' If I jump into a garbage bin, I can't complain that I've got rubbish all over me.

After watching my poor mother being sometimes neglected by my father, it was almost tattooed on my brain that I would never cause hardship or despair to a partner.

It's impossible to have a favourite Shakespeare, since so many of the plays rouse and inspire completely different parts of your being.

Both my parents were entrepreneurs and built a nice leisure business. But money was tight when I was growing up.

Nothing irritates me more than going to see an artist and paying all this money and then have them rant about very specific political opinions.

That is one of the sides of Los Angeles that I really like as people may have their big careers but there is one side to Hollywood that is always open to taking risks - as long as it doesn’t include risking too much money.

People ask me, 'Why are you still writing books?' Like I'm still only writing to make money and as soon as I have enough I'll quit and go fishing? I like to write books. It's the most satisfying thing I do.