The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible. Or, what's impossible? What's a fantasy?
Alan Rickman
And it's a human need to be told stories. The more we're governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.
I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.
If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.
Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.
Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.
I'm still living the life where you get home and open the fridge and there's half a pot of yogurt and a half a can of flat Coca-Cola.
It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.
If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.
Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.
I love perfumes. Every morning when my girlfriend and I come down to the courtyard in our block of flats we're assailed by the most delicious scent - jasmine round a doorway. It almost makes me swoon.
There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.
I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time.
Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.
I get stage fright and gremlins in my head saying: 'You're going to forget your lines'.
I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.
I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.
I am the character you are not supposed to like.
All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.
I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.
Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive.
The directors you trust the most are the ones, when you ask them a question, they've got the guts to say, 'I don't know.'
I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it's a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties.
I knew with Snape I was working as a double agent, as it turns out, and a very good one at that.
Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, and that even though only three of the books were out at that time, she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands.
I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.
If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.
So you can't judge the character you're playing ever.
Mellow doesn't describe me. I'm hungry every day.
I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting.
Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together.
From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.
I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word: a journey.
My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.
Every so often you read a play and a character just speaks to you - almost seems to speak through you, in fact.
I think the thing about film is, as it gets proved by a lot of young filmmakers now, that the medium will just go on reinventing itself, and so you just hope to be a part of that and not a part of some kind of endless regurgitation or 'Here I am doing what you know I do' kind of thing.
What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves.
It is an ancient need to be told stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.
I approach every part I'm asked to do and decide to do from exactly the same angle: who is this person, what does he want, how does he attempt to get it, and what happens to him when he doesn't get it, or if he does?
Any actor who judges his character is a fool - for every role you play you've got to absorb that character's motives and justifications.
I do feel more myself in America. I can regress there, and they have roller-coaster parks.
I never talk about 'Harry Potter' because I think that would rob children of something that's private to them. I think too many things get explained, so I hate talking about it.
Actors are actually very supportive of each other.
Being on the stage in New York is always exciting because you feel like you're part of the life of the city.
A lot of the time I hate the theater. You think, 'I have to climb Mount Everest, again, tonight.' Oh, the theater is a scary place to be.
I like it when stories are left open.
My parents certainly didn't have anything to do with the theater. I'm some kind of accident.
I think every English actor is nervous of a Newcastle accent.
If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there's only one topic of conversation.
On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. I have also recently returned from New York, and while I was there, I saw Daniel singing and dancing (brilliantly) on Broadway. A lifetime seems to have passed in minutes.
