Mark Gatiss

“They are called 'Emos' now, and before that they were 'Goths.' They didn't have a name for it when I was one, but I was that black-wearing teenager and yes, I wore a little eyeliner.”

“'Son of Frankenstein' is never talked about in the same tone as James Whale's 1931 'Frankenstein.' But it should be. It was Boris Karloff's last appearance in the Frankenstein series and stars Donnie Dunagan, then a child actor.”

“I think one of the few faults in Dickens is that mostly his lead characters are blanks - who is David Copperfield, who is Oliver Twist? And yet he takes such joy in populating the rest of his novels with these fantastic, grotesque people like Pecksmith and so on.”

“I'm a great believer in the beauty and the power of surprise.”

“I'm terribly nostalgic, but I'm with the Elizabethans who thought nostalgia was a disease. It's a dangerous place to be because you can get caught up in it.”

“My dad was quite a forbidding figure. I realise now that that was mainly because he worked so hard. He wasn't unkind, but he was a presence.”

“All films speak to their times. It becomes obvious only after.”

“I don't care what other people think any more about me writing my own parts.”

“I had a girlfriend before I ever had a boyfriend, but it was just a phase.”

“When I was seven or eight, I was bought a fantastic book called 'The Movie Treasury of Horror Movies' by Alan G. Frank; it became my bible. It's packed full of the most amazing photos and is still fantastic to look at.”

“I always wanted to do Restoration comedy. It seems like so much fun.”

“I love the Shakespeare history plays; I love the struggle for the crown as a plot.”

“The first film I can remember seeing on TV was 'The Brides of Dracula.' I was instantly hooked.”

“I used to go to the gym regularly and swim an awful lot, but that was when I was unemployed and knew leisure intimately.”

“I love going to galleries, particularly the National Portrait Gallery.”

“'Monty Python' is now more recognised by the films than by the TV series.”

“The question I ask myself is: have I really just become a squeamish middle-aged man, or has something happened to the horror genre that shows a growing appetite for watching torture, or at least a desire to explore it on film? And if so, why would that be? I can't pretend I know. I just know I don't like it.”

“Slightly forgettable movies can sometimes make great musicals.”