Hugh Grant

“The truth is, I'd never seen a Cary Grant film. Since then I have watched his stuff and it's astounding, but I don't see any similarity between us. Except for the fact that I'm told he used to wear ladies' underwear, which is something I also do.”

“I'm very unrelaxed doing a newspaper interview.”

“My mother was a teacher.”

“Do I think human beings are meant to be in 40-year-long monogamous, faithful, relationships? No, No, No. Whoever said they were? Only the Bible or something. No one ever said that was a good idea.”

“If you do too much acting in a lead part in a feature film where you're 40 ft. high, it's rather unattractive. You can see the acting. And it's actually the right thing to do to bring as much of yourself, I believe, to the part as you possibly can - to minimize the amount of theatrical stuff that you need to do.”

“Comedy is probably a way of dealing with anxiety. Sometimes it's a way of dealing with pain.”

“When I think about actors I know, I'd much rather hear about who they're shagging than what film they're doing next.”

“I've always dreaded the sea - in fact, I get terribly seasick.”

“You know everyone loves to be the villain.”

“My contemporary art collection began with just needing to put things on the wall. I was looking around my Victorian house thinking, 'What would be the coolest is contemporary art - it will make me look young and interesting.' I'm more than 80 percent skeptical of the whole thing.”

“I'm quite jealous of my Scottish relations, in whose culture everyone, in a Jane Austen kind of way, got married very young, when you're too young to be cynical or jaded and just started having children.”

“I get more satisfaction out of comedy stuff. I'm a laugh tart. I make no secret of that fact.”

“I'm not a great believer in marriages as an institution, or even in very long term relationships. I'm not sure we're built that way.”

“I always admire the French and the Italians who are very devoted to their marriages. They take them extremely seriously, but it is understood that there might be other visitors at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. You just never boast about. They never say anything, but that's what keeps marriages together.”

“The moral of filmmaking in Britain is that you will be screwed by the weather.”

“I have this absurd syndrome where I get these out-of-the-blue, pathetic panic attacks. It'll be in a very easy, simple scene when everything is going swimmingly, and then suddenly, bang, I'm shvitzing and can't remember my lines.”

“Frankly, I think I'm marvelous in rehearsal! Then you turn the camera on, and it gets stiff and tight. And then you trudge back to your trailer feeling sad. That's been my experience of film acting.”

“I have known a few good marriages, but very few. And others look to me like they're pretty miserable. I don't really think that's a recipe for happiness.”

“I've driven people mad on films that I've made - I want more takes; I want to try new lines. Then I want to interfere in the editing process, and I want to interfere in the advertising process - everything, everything. Pretty much Barbra Streisand in trousers, I am!”

“I don't have any particular burning desire to go back to being cuddly. Not really.”