Colin Firth

I absolutely don't care about my looks and I'm so used to them that I wouldn't change a thing. I would end up missing my defects. ”

My parents and grandparents have always been engaged in teaching or the medical profession or the priesthood, so I've sort of grown up with a sense of complicity in the lives of other people, so there's no virtue in that; it's the way one is raised. ”

I've gotten involved in producing now, so the kinds of things that are more my own choice are more possible in that field because I don't have to be castable. I can actually get involved in getting stories off the ground that no one would ask me to be in because I'm the wrong age, the wrong sex, the wrong nationality, or whatever. ”

It used to be that I was always paranoid or a loser or something so there's usually something that you seem to associate yourself with at one time or another. ”

One of my grandfathers, actually, having gone out there as a minister, decided he would better serve the people as a doctor. So at a very late age - at the age of 38 in fact - he changed course and decided to become a doctor. ”

We are actors who show up for work in our sloppy gear, and we've got this extraordinary tailor. It's someone else who's done the design; someone else who's cut the suit; someone else who's measured it. Basically, your job is to just wear it. ”

I work with the options I have in front of me and my reasons for choosing a job can vary enormously depending on the circumstances. Sometimes I take a job because it's a group of people I'm dying to work with, and sometimes it can be a desire to shake things up a bit and not to take myself too seriously. ”

I'm not patient, and some things drive me crazy. In my work, I get incredibly upset when people don't get it right or don't respect others' needs. ”

I would rather five people knew my work and thought it was good work than five million knew me and were indifferent. ”

My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation. It's thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that's not me. Often with actors, it's a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where's the substance? ”