Tom Payne

“God can communicate to us through powerful feelings. They have an energy that impels us to action. They grip our mind and will not let us go. What is calling you? What has the voice of God been whispering to you through the desires of your heart? To what are you drawn and constantly compelled to do? It could be that God is opening the eyes of your heart to see something that no one else is seeing, and to do something that others aren’t doing. If that is true, then move forward and let God worry about the how.”

“I love the way America is so aspirational. I really like the attitude that you can be anything you want to be as long as you're willing to work for it.”

“I'm definitely an animal lover.”

“When you don't know how to fight you tend to put all your energy into one punch. That will tire you out quickly. You learn to keep energy in reserve and use your body in an efficient manner.”

“Being in a long-running series is great because it gives you so many opportunities - but at the same time it's a bit desk jobby: you go to the same place every day, you do the same thing and you play the same character.”

“There's no difference between a gay person and a heterosexual person at the end of the day.”

“'Downton Abbey' is my worst nightmare. I just hate that whole 'Upstairs Downstairs' thing, I think it's really lazy and it doesn't represent England, it's this postcard view.”

“I did a movie called 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,' which had Frances McDormand and Amy Adams in it. It was Focus Features, an American company, and I used that as my ticket into America.”

“The whole experience of being on The Walking Dead' is a singular experience.”

“One thing I love about America is that I'm not boxed in by my upbringing here. England is still so class-based that there are certain roles that I just won't go for. I'm a middle-class boy and I won't go for the scruffy working-class role, which is frustrating, and here I can play anything.”

“I'm 26, and I'm finally getting to play characters in their early twenties.”

“There's years of growth and emotions in that hair. And it gets cut off and you're like, 'I'm really metamorphosing into something else. I'm emerging.'”

“Jockeys - it's so difficult It's completely insane. You're balancing on the balls of your feet on the spine of a horse and it's like you're piloting a missile It's amazing. I think jockeys are stunt men.”

“I wasn't thinking about awards or becoming rich. I just wanted to be able to make my living by working as an actor.”

“It's possible to shoot two TV shows. It's absolutely possible, it's not something I would choose to do. It does sound completely miserable.”

“In my teenage years I had a very anti-cruelty orientation and all that kind of stuff, so having spent a long time at the track and around the horses and around the people that are there, I realized the saddest thing that can happen is if anything happens to a horse.”

“It just makes me so happy that I can give someone a smile by just saying hello. That's pretty cool.”

“I think one of the reasons why The Walking Dead' has been such a successful show is that Andrew Lincoln led that show so incredibly well, from the front, and treated everyone so amazingly, behind the scenes and in public.”

“My whole life has changed in the last three years and The Walking Dead' is no small part of that. It's changed my life and will continue to do so.”

“If you want to succeed, you have to take the necessary risks and the occasional leap in the dark.”