I wanted to be a painter, really, when I was growing up as a kid. It was one thing that really took a grip on me.

My first job when I got my equity card was acting in 14 plays back-to-back. Playing that many roles, you look for ways of differentiating the characters physically, which goes hand in hand with understanding them psychologically.

The learning curve is 'The Hobbit' is being shot in 3D.

I've been told that some guy wrote something like, 'Andy Serkis does everything, animators do nothing.' Of course I never in a million years said that, wouldn't ever say that. It's not within my understanding of filmmaking to ever say anything like that.

It's funny now how much we look at - whatever you want to call it: art, design, culture stuff, film - online, and how in the online world, you're instantly global.

My all-time favorite TED talks are Brene Brown's 'The Power of Vulnerability' and Sir Ken Robinson's 'Do Schools Kill Creativity.'

There's a particular sensitivity required to be an artist, and a certain vulnerability, perhaps, and also, somewhere between, you're in your body a lot, too. It's much more physical than one would imagine because I think it's the body where the imagination lives somehow. I do feel the imagination isn't just in the brain up there.

Reality has always been too small for the human imagination. We're always trying to transcend.