Favourite Actors

You use your money to buy privacy because during most of your life you aren't allowed to be normal

As you get older you have more respect and empathy for your parents. Now I have a great relationship with both of them.

I'll always do 'Sherlock' - it's something I'm not going to give up on.

One thing that I do find really sexy is a girl who's good at crossword puzzles.

There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.

I take a lot of pride in being myself. I'm comfortable with who I am.

I love characters who are clever and smart, and you have to run to catch up with. I think there's something very appealing and rather heroic in that.

I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker.

I am terribly clumsy, so there is a plethora of walking into lamp-posts, falling over, dropping things, and ruining sofas.

I've always thought Prince Charming in 'Cinderella' was the most boring role; I'd rather be the Wicked Witch.

I think trying too hard to be sexy is the worst thing in the world a woman can do.

I just love bikes. It's not the safest passion to have, but I guess it's better than Russian roulette.

Art imitates life and, sometimes, life imitates art. It's a weird combination of elements.

I was quiet, a loner. I was one of those children where, if you put me in a room and gave me some crayons and a pencils, you wouldn't hear from me for nine straight hours. And I was always drawing racing cars and rockets and spaceships and planes, things that were very fast that would take me away.

I do sometimes play characters that are a bit ambiguous. You've got to be brave about that sort of stuff. I like the sense of people not feeling too secure, not immediately knowing what they have in front of them.

I was 17, and all I wanted to do was to get away from England and the awful, boring boarding schools I'd been going to there. The last one was taught by monks, and I couldn't wait to get out.

Sometimes just when I say hello the right way, I'm like, 'Whoa, I'm so cool.'

When you start falling for somebody and you can't stop thinking about when you're going to see them again, I love that. Women are beautiful. They deserve to be cherished and respected.

I like reading, going to the gym, hanging out with my family. That's it.

I'm not the kind of person who tries to be cool or trendy, I'm definitely an individual.

I like villains because there's something so attractive about a committed person - they have a plan, an ideology, no matter how twisted. They're motivated.

As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn't work for me. I'd just rather sit at home and read, or go out to dinner with someone, or talk to someone I love, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh.

I'm a big believer in the notion that our greatest potential lies in our darkest parts. To a certain extent it's only in facing those parts of ourselves that we can truly grow, and I think that's true of all of the characters I've played, certainly in the past few years.

I just love listening to the laughter.

Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.

I love academics, theory and all that. I love and admire that and try to do as much reading as I can.

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.

Q: What type of girl would you go for? Richard: Someone a bit naughty. And who likes food – because I really do – and who doesn’t take life too seriously and has a sense of humour. I could never go out with another actor, I’d find that hard – the stresses of the job, they just pull people in different directions.

I'm an actor and a writer, that's how I think of myself. Sometimes my time is divided equally, sometimes less equally, but that's what I do.

I keep everything very simple. I like telling stories.