Colin Firth

“I think it's quite extraordinary that people cast me as if I'm Warren Beatty: until I met my present wife, at the age of 35, you could name two girlfriends.”

“If you don't mind haunting the margins, I think there is more freedom there.”

“They're not bombarding me with offers, although the ones that have come along have been too preposterous to contemplate, so it's not as if I spend every day resisting $20 million pay cheques.”

“My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation. It's thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that's not me. Often with actors, it's a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where's the substance?”

“We are actors who show up for work in our sloppy gear, and we've got this extraordinary tailor. It's someone else who's done the design; someone else who's cut the suit; someone else who's measured it. Basically, your job is to just wear it.”

“In filming, you're waiting - you're waiting for lights, you're waiting for people to set things up - and when you're not waiting, you're repeating.”

“I can't imagine seeing Batman in black and white. It was such a colourful TV series. I know. I'm ancient. It wasn't abnormal to be without a television in those days. People who had colour were special.”

“We've always been involved with America - I have a son who lives there and it's a big part of my life.”

“Some people would say comedy draws from some dark places, from your dark stuff. Life's great optimists aren't necessarily the funniest people.”

“It used to be that I was always paranoid or a loser or something so there's usually something that you seem to associate yourself with at one time or another.”

“Almost every comedy you see is about people making all wrong choices and making all the errors of judgement possible. Good comedy is when it works on this scale. Because it is psychologically very real.”

“Something like 'A Single Man,' it was tiny; it was financed by one guy. We all lost money doing it.”

“I would rather five people knew my work and thought it was good work than five million knew me and were indifferent.”

“I think England has served me very well. I like living in London for the reasons I gave. I have absolutely no intentions of cutting those ties. There is absolutely no reason to do so. Certainly not, so that I can have a swimming pool and a palm tree.”

“One of my grandfathers, actually, having gone out there as a minister, decided he would better serve the people as a doctor. So at a very late age - at the age of 38 in fact - he changed course and decided to become a doctor.”

“You have to be ill if you want to get better.”

“I don't want to sound smug but I am reasonably satisfied with how it's gone. I think it's fine.”

“I do notice that when I've been away and I come back to London. People look at you. People are ready to pick arguments.”

“I haven't had to struggle very much. I haven't paid my dues. I think I have been lucky.”

“My looks aren't something that come dazzlingly through in everything I do. I can be made to look one way or the other fairly easily... I am still not recognised on the street that much.”