- Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?
- God, no. I don't do any of that shit [partying with celebrities]. I've got a stag weekend coming up and I've said I'm not doing anything more than a few drinks. I won't have it. I'll go home and watch Antiques Roadshow (1997).
- If I could get bands to come and play in my house, I'd like that. I've never been to a festival. I'm a creature of habit, mashed-potato comfort, I like rugs. Our sofa's squishy. Maybe too squishy - it's hard to get up sometimes.
- Most people have a passive relationship with music and clothes, with culture. But music was my first contact with anything creative. Music is it, as far as I'm concerned.
- Some people have that roar in their head, but I'm not sure I ever did. That live-fast-die-young thing. No one wants it really - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin - it's not good. I want to live with Amanda till I'm 70. I was never the kid that went all the way with naughtiness, never got caned or in serious trouble. I always knew when to pull back.
- I don't think it was a surprise that I ended up as an actor, and it was anything but a disappointment. My parents gave me the knowledge that reading isn't a bad thing, and admitting to liking a painting doesn't make you an arse-bandit. And that wouldn't have been a problem either.
- I'm not a practicing Catholic or I wouldn't be living unwed with a woman, and I don't think all poofs are going to hell, and I don't think everyone who's had an abortion is damned, most of my friends are atheists and I understand atheism, I get it, but I happen to be a theist. I believe in our answerableness to something else.
- My mum was Labour-voting, but wanted us to know we were important. Basically, everyone's equal, but you, my children, are a bit better.
- Once you've switched that switch [commitment], then, though you notice that other people are great, you're just not interested.
- Half of us are partly German! Half our language and culture, generally, in Anglo-Saxon terms, is German.
- I would wear a full-length cape if I could get away with it - I do love a good swirl in a fog.
- I did a play once where a reviewer said, Martin Freeman is too nice to play a bad guy.' And I thought: 'Well, bad guys aren't always bad guys, you know?' When I see someone play the obvious villain, I know it's false.
- I can spot someone with similar fashion sense to me a mile off.
- I'm a big believer that life changes as much as you want it to.
- I think I'm less gloomy than I used to be - I've got a very supportive other half.
- I'm not posh or common, I'm in between.
- I think what 'The Hobbit' and Middle-earth deal in are quite universal and timeless themes of honor and love and friendship... so they're things that do resonate with people.
- My idea of a good night out is staying in.
- I'm not particularly affable in real life, I have to tell you. I've got that side to me, of course, but that's not all I am.
- I have a very extreme state of mind. Things are very black or very white.
- To my mind there are not enough things that show the Nazis as human, as smart people, charismatic people, who are not inhuman naturally. But who are able to be fantastically inhuman when they choose to be.
- I don't want to sound like a grumpy old man, but nothing winds me up more than people saying, 'Chill out' to me when I'm irritated!
- People misunderstand me.
- There are lots of things that keep me awake at night, but work isn't one of them. I mean, no-one's going to die if someone doesn't like what I do. So I don't feel a great pressure.
- I value being able to go into a record shop and people leaving me alone.
- Any pigeonhole is something to be rebelled against.
- I don't think anyone looks into their family tree and expects it to come up smelling of roses.
- I think people just like seeing friendship. I think people like seeing people who just drive each other up the wall, but at same time, can't live without each other.
- I like things that are simple, such as an alarm clock.
- Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and Al Pacino made me want to act. I've always been interested in men with a vulnerable side.
- Like any friendship or marriage, familiarity breeds more contempt, and love, and everything.
- There was very little drama and performance at my school, so I've never forgotten the people who did encourage me and I've thought whether it would be a good idea to even get in touch with them and just say thanks, because they really opened a door for me mentally and emotionally - that's really important.
- I've always loved Christmas and that's not really gone away from me from being a child to now. It's always a magical time and I'm unashamed in my love for Christmas.
- I don't want to be poor, of course. But I try not to make that the guiding force behind whether I choose to do something or not.
- Acting is the only thing I'm even vaguely good at and acting is something that I think I do know about.
- I like the quiet life sometimes. I also love a bustling press conference sometimes as well. I love a 600 meter red carpet.
- I am a fan of the Coen brothers. I'm not a fanatic. I'm a big admirer. They create unique worlds, and there is a real atmosphere to their films. Not everyone can get that. That's a massive part of their appeal: you can recognize them. Like all the great directors or artists, you know it when you see it.
- Sherlock (2010) is one of the biggest things I will do, ever - we could never have predicted that level of insanity around the series.
- Disappointment is an endless wellspring of comedy inspiration.
- In London we give ourselves a pat on the back, rightly, for not killing one another, for our prejudice being subtle rather than lethal.
- I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerized rather than mechanized.
- Name anything - high-definition TV, computer obsolescence - and I'm pretty much annoyed by it.
- I'm one of the few people I know who believes in God.
- What makes Shakespeare eternal is his grasp of psychology. He knew how to nail stuff about us as human beings.
- I've got an overly developed sense of what selling out is, and I of course worry about it too much.
- Humor is - how do I say this without sounding pompous - it's a huge part of my life.
- I don't think it was a surprise that I ended up as an actor, and it was anything but a disappointment.
- I'm geek royalty now.
- Being a mod is more of a sensibility than a style.
- I love home. I'd rather be at home than anywhere else.
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