#Quote1It's just very dull. Talking about yourself and about something that you've got less interest in than you had, because you've always moved on to something else.2On his favorite Sherlock (2010) scene: I don't often get too much to say. I think my favorite scene is when Lestrade first saw that Sherlock was okay, at the underground car park. The art is to react, in the moment, so it depends very much on what Benedict Cumberbatch is doing, and the other people are doing. And there's a scene [in the special] between Lestrade and Mrs. Hudson that was great. We've been friends for awhile, Una Stubbs and I, and it was great to get to act together.3I drifted into acting, and I've drifted into my career, and I've never been guided by anything particularly concrete.4On his character in Sherlock (2010): I'm too stupid even to be Watson. I'm just Lestrade.5I kind of always wanted to act, but to get a grant I would have needed two A-levels, and I was too far away from even O levels. I didn't know you could get a scholarship, so I determined early not to pursue that.6The urge to act became the overriding force in my life. It thrilled me. There's a moment with acting when you're in the groove, and you and what you're trying to do are seamlessly one. That happens sometimes, and I'm really happy it can happen to me.7I don't plan. I don't think, 'I have to do this kind of part 'cause I've done that kind of part.' I'm not a very good planner.8I'm crap at interviews. I'm just not very good at sentences.9The amount of work you need to do to become a very successful celebrity is something I'm not prepared to do.10I just think the older I get, actually, the better I feel.11It's interesting when you're in your thirties and you're not the same pretty boy that you were when you were 21. I think people's anger at themselves getting older is projected on to you because you become a symbol of that.12Celebrity's a pain in the backside - you're always on display.13Not being anxious requires a level of humility, doesn't it? It does, I think. It's not all about you.14There's a thing I think children realize at a certain age, which is that if their parents say, 'Don't do it', and they go ahead and do it, they're still not going to die. And I think that's what it is: that no matter what you do, you're not going to die.15I was a closet straight. I think I wanted to be gay because I thought it was arty and interesting. And also, I was phenomenally shy with girls.16I was a dozy boy; I'd like to have been like James Dean, but I was more Arthur Askey - pathetically rebellious in a cheeky, chappy sort of way.17I'm entirely uneducated. I went to public school - public in the American sense - a blue-collar, working-class school. I never got a scholarship, I left when I was 15, never did any exams.18I never went to acting school. I started in the circus, music hall, I was in a group, did kids' bits. I've always had this kind of insecurity being uneducated.19I was concerned about doing the right thing when I was a kid. I suppose as a child, you're a massive egomaniac, and you think that everything you do is going to affect the world.20You have to be savvy to be a celebrity. You have to create a personality and shove that out. It just seems fatuous to me. Professionally, it's a good idea. But I can't do it.21"I'm really pleased with myself. I've not had any training. I came from Weston-super-Mare, the same place as John Cleese, but I didn't have an education. I knew nothing about acting except that early on I knew I wanted to do it, and I've managed for 20 years to do things without doing them just for the money. Very, very occasionally when I've been really strapped for cash I thought I'd better do a job for money maybe about four times in 20 years, every five years or so on average. And the rest of the time I've done pretty much as I've pleased in jobs that have interested me. By those standards, which are the standards that I judge myself by, I feel happy. The amount of work you need to do to become a very successful celebrity is something I'm not prepared to do." Interview with Andrew Billen, March 27, 2002.22Giving interviews is just very dull. Talking about yourself and something that you've got less interest in than you had, because you've already moved on to something else. But you have a contractual obligation. - interview with Emma Brooks, April 22, 2002.