Tom Hollander

“When I started in the profession, there were very visible actors who were Scottish, Welsh, or regional. Lots of working-class-hero leading actors; it was not fashionable to sound posh. Now, I'm middle-aged; it's fashionable to sound posh if you are the generation behind me.”

“Nothing else is as fulfilling as playing a part in which you are able to have a significant say in the creative process all the way through. How many actors get to do that? It's extremely rare.”

“In the periods of my life when I've had least contact with the Church, I've always assumed a belief in God is a solid thing, but clearly it's a relationship; it has good days and bad days.”

“I don't have any children. And I've often found other people's a bit annoying.”

“I am single. Acting can make it hard to have profound relationships if you're not careful. You get into this pattern of three-month, four-month jobs and 'what's the next adventure.'”

“For me, faith is more about aspiration than complacency - the smug satisfaction that other people find distasteful.”

“Show business is not conducive to mental stability. It's a constant rollercoaster of adrenaline spikes and devastating let-downs. There's something about seeing a face from the telly in real life that makes people deranged.”

“In a thriving culture, you celebrate your achievements. In an exhausted one, you proclaim your disadvantages.”

“New York is still the most glamorous city I've ever been to, but it's starting to feel older. The sirens still wail; the paths in Central Park still pulsate with joggers. The Manhattan schist still trembles beneath your feet. But weirdly, it's starting to feel, dare I say it, a bit quaint.”

“The danger with playing a part that defines you is that it swallows up everything else.”

“Actresses are just professionally lovely, aren't they?”

“My parents are very lovely people - the sort of people that one should aspire to be like, really.”

“Stories about vicars are always being told because they're at the heart of our society. Vicars touch all parts of the community and see life in all its extremity.”

“I meet people who are famous, and it's made me realise that fame has huge lifestyle disadvantages. I'm nervous about that. I don't want to become a celebrity.”

“My sister and I both benefited hugely from the great security that our parents had given us, and then we went off and squandered it all rushing around in showbiz.”

“Actors, who have no real sense of who they are or what they want, have long known that not just their gender but every aspect of their identity is on a spectrum. They can be anything they are asked to be. They aspire to a protean state, shape-shifting like high summer clouds.”