There is a purpose to our lives, even if it is sometimes hidden from us, and even if the biggest turning points and heartbreaks only make sense as we look back, rather than as we are experiencing them. So we might as well live life as if—as the poet Rumi put it—everything is rigged in our favor.

When we shrink our whole reality down to pending projects, when our life becomes our endless to-do list, it's difficult to put them aside each night and let ourselves fall asleep and connect with something deeper.

One swallow does not make a spring, nor does one fine day

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

And this activity alone would seem to be loved for its own sake; for nothing arises from it apart from the contemplating, while from practical activities we gain more or less apart from the action. And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.

The nature of television - it's quicker than both a play and a movie.

I always say to anybody who's going over to America for the first time, 'Whatever you do, go and see a popular mainstream film with a big audience.' Because people shout out. You never get that in Britain. Everybody's so quiet, scared to laugh. It's like being in church.

In Manchester, there are two restaurants, and everything's small. It rains all the time.

I think taking a gap after a long-running show is a must.

I love being in the garden, and my 'chilling-out room' is almost like being out there.

As an actor I get opportunities to do different kind of films. It's not that if I have done a few comedies, I'm averse to other roles or genres. It's just that I go for the films I like and incidentally some of them have been comedies.

The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift.