I was 16 when I was in a band, for about 10 minutes. I went off and did acting after that. So it was a wee moment for me when I sang.

I'd love to do a Columbo-type detective character in a series.

I'd love to play some kind of fop.

I'd totally be attracted to a geek girl!

I'd work with Danny Boyle every day of the week. No matter what he was doing I would do that.

I'm not someone who believes in wasting my vote.

I've always taken my love of children from my father. He was a children magnet. Suddenly, having my first child hit home what my dad went through.

I've really enjoyed my work in television, but the problem for me is the turnover of directors every week.

If there's anything you want to ask your parents, ask them before they go, because once they go, they're gone.

In the late '70s, maybe just before I started, there was still an attitude that if you did film you didn't do TV and vice versa, but that's gone now.

In troubled times the last thing you want to do is to stick your money into a film. It's such a gamble.

It depends who the director is you know, I mean Ken Loach for instance. I've done up to 32 takes with him.

It took a long time for me to accept I was an actor, a professional actor, and that, actually, I make a living out of this.

Most of the time, you find that the smaller the budget, the more the project is about something substantive.

My dad was rubbish at all other aspects of his financial life, but he's pretty good at paying the rent.

My first love is art, and I see a lot of things in an artistic way.

My wife was a make-up artist, and she's a total product junkie. Our bathroom is packed full of lotions and potions so I end up trying them out.

People go to the movies to watch a film and all they're thinking about is the actress's cellulite they saw in a magazine.

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

The darker the character, the more interesting.