My mother taught me what it is to have a sense of humour my dad, who was a headmaster, everything you need to know about hard work. My dad is the most decent man you could come across.

Brain surgeons are dealing with the very last thread of life, and they have to be very confident, but I think they tend to remember their failures rather than their successes, and that must be very hard. Who do you share that failure with? That's why their personal lives are often disastrous.

I've heard some duff Irish accents. The worst must be Mickey Rourke.

Martin Freeman as [Bilbo] is just a revelation.

New Zealand is a place where you can get well.

I'm not strong-willed enough or unkind enough... or maybe simply not wise enough to tell a journalist that a subject is out of bounds.

Spoilt is a euphemism for loved.

I spend my money on holidays and eating out, and it allows me to be generous.

I thought I was God's gift to mankind and the greatest Irishman since George Best.

I didn't much like Las Vegas. The noise of the place and the whole 24-hour, 'let's play the slot machines all night' culture of the place just left me cold.

In my life, I have made the occasional catastrophic choice, and it's just a case of moving on and learning from it.

I feel old and vulnerable. I now realise that I knew nothing and know nothing, but back when my career was beginning, I thought I was a man when, in fact, I was a dewy-eyed boy who'd not seen an avocado or eaten a tomato.