David Thewlis

“Most parts I've played since 'Naked,' I can barely remember who they were, let alone repeat any lines.”

“It wasn't a good idea to work on 'Naked' in the first months of a marriage. I was living apart from my wife in a flat overflowing with books I was reading for the part.”

“I'd been a stepparent for about two years with a woman who had a child, and I came to realize I adored children and was good with them. So I was very happy when Anna got pregnant.”

“I really like Los Angeles. I like the weather, the openness of it, the beach, the mountains, the desert. I find it inspiring. I get quite a lot of writing done out there.”

“I feel like I'm in a film about a struggling artist who keeps getting up at all hours of the night to look at his big, blank empty canvas. And in a way I am. Except that i'm not struggling. I'm Hector Kipling. I might be getting up at all hours of the night to look at my big, blank, empty canvas, but I am not fucking struggling.”

“Publishing a novel was such a proud thing for me. When I was a kid, I used to say to my mum and dad, 'I'm going to write a book. You'll see.' So when I did ,and it was published, and people liked it, it was great.”

“I'm much more Buddhist. I mean, I'm not a Buddhist. I should be so lucky to be a Buddhist, a real Buddhist, but of all the things I investigated, that seems to make the most sense to me.”

“I like time off. I'm not a workaholic.”

“I don't think its good for the soul to invest too much of yourself in technology.”

“I started doing the big Hollywood stuff, and I realised, 'Oh, there's no rehearsal at all; you just turn up on the set, and sometimes you haven't even met the other actor, or the woman who's playing your wife, and you're suddenly in bed with them.'”

“People sometimes say, 'Why do you choose a part?' and sometimes it's not that I chose it but that that was the one that came along.”

“Yeah, well that's the best thing about it, I think, is knowing kids and kids getting mental when they know you're in it. Any kid you meet and anyone I know tells the kid you're in it and they get short of breath.”

“What is truth? What is a true story? Who is telling the truth, and what is truth in this world today?”

“I was a young actor in my 20s, going out in Soho, having a wild time.”

“One can only improvise what one knows.”

“After Cannes, my agent told me to get the next flight to LA. He was right. I had a part in 'Prime Suspect 3' by the end of the week.”

“It was so boring, and 'Dragonheart' was so unchallenging - there was no research involved or any rehearsal. So I was in my hotel room every night with no English-language TV except 'Beavis and Butt-head' at 10 o'clock every night.”

“He'd been let down so oftenHis brow was on the floorBut then they foundA small hole in the groundAnd let him down some more”

“I want that. I want that awful intense and serious unhappiness, cos then I might feel better, and then I might be happy.”

“'Harry Potter' is very nice because it's very easy to make children happy. All you have to do is have your photograph taken with them.”