Damian Lewis quotes:

In England we burnt redheads at the stake, because we thought they were witches. There are still young redheads in Britain getting ripped for having red hair. 'Oy, Ginger!'

It's certainly true that I was brought up in that British amateur tradition, the one which always held that if you were reasonably good at cricket, knew one or two Latin texts and a few zingy Oscar Wilde quotes for dinner parties, you were pretty much ready to go and run some outpost in Hindustan.

I've always had a 'Work hard, play hard' attitude to life - I still do - but sometimes you get involved in something that needs a calm, methodical approach.

Seeing a man praying to Allah is enough for some people to assume he is a terrorist.

We are not telling Tudor history; we are creating ' Wolf Hall ' from novels, which are already a rereading of Tudor history.

Why do you think so many actors are only half-developed people? It's very easy when you're a young actor to have these intense, explosive friendships for short periods of time, because you can control what's shown of you. Then you go on to your next job and reinvent yourself again. I think it's important to find something constant.

Quiet people, people who aren't given to emotional outbursts, people who are economic with words - they're also fun to play, but you find yourself needing a laser precision in those roles. Otherwise you just sort of stand around, looking slightly brain-dead. You worry about being uninteresting.

You know what it's like to feel anxious - it's horrible feeling anxious. It's stressful having that feeling, having butterflies in your stomach, even for a day, and you don't sleep at night.

Of course the lower classes have always felt downtrodden and aspired to a better life. But there is this theory that people respond to a class structure in England - there was a time when people knew who they were and knew whom they served and as long as management wasn't abusive, it was a good life for people.

I've had loss in my life, and I like to think my mother's energy lives on in some faintly Buddhist way. I do find some comfort there.

Quiet people, people who arent given to emotional outbursts, people who are economic with words - theyre also fun to play, but you find yourself needing a laser precision in those roles. Otherwise you just sort of stand around, looking slightly brain-dead. You worry about being uninteresting.

I was, if you like, a successful schoolboy in that I had a degree of talent in all the required things that make you a success at school.

You can't do something that is morally vacuous or dysfunctional and then write it off saying, 'It wasn't my film, I was just doing a job in it.'

No Western government has ever played the long-term in terms of foreign policy.

Dramatically it's always more interesting to conceal rather than reveal things.

The best shows succeed because they tap into a national conversation.

I'm sponsored by Audi, so I have this rather lovely rather arrangement where they just insist that I'm always in the latest model.

Temperamentally I'm not a natural producer, because I don't have the patience.

I don't believe Jesus was the son of God, although I'm inclined to think he might have been a great prophet.

The lesson I learned is that sometimes the task you have at hand needs all of your concentration and focus.

When I'm working in America, I wake up with an American accent and stay with it all day till makeup comes off. I just want everyone to be at ease, and not have the show's creators think, 'Oh my god, he's so English, why did we hire him?'

You know, I think I am faintly spiritual.

I have a three-year-old and a four-year-old at home, and my mornings are about just dealing with the fact of that. I oddly enjoy it.

My heroes were all in the theatre.

I love playing sport.

I want to make a clear distinction between people who take acting seriously and people who call themselves actors because theyve been on reality TV or something.

I've discovered just how symbiotic the relationship is between writers, directors and actors. They ask the same questions and strip down texts in exactly the same way.

I'm a slow starter.

In the end, there's something of the puritan work ethic about me that roles really must sustain me on an intellectual level.

A cricket ball broke my nose when I was a kid so I couldn't breath through it. Before I had it operated on I used to stand on stage with my mouth slightly open.

I'm no more or less antisocial than the next person.

L.A. still ranks as one of my guilty pleasures, along with butter-pecan ice cream and Coldplay albums.

You know, this idea of going around the world imposing democracy by growing a middle-class, a trading merchant class that is independent of your faith, is a good notion, but we're all partially different - it's no good imposing systems on people that it doesn't suit.

A lot of these American actors have this - in my view - misplaced view that they have to look like Action Man. The trouble is, they all run the risk of being interchangeable.

I've always been a narcissist.

There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And there's a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you don't need to do so.

I'd feel guilty just doing gags.

I don't mean this grandly, but it was never my intention to live in L.A. and do a big network show.

Writing and directing might be a red herring, and really I'm just re-examining what it is to act, to do it well and do it properly.

It's an unfair comparison because when things are developed in the UK, they're developed at script stage only.

You just have to take control of your own performance.

For me the rehearsal period is the part I most enjoy. It's the creating of the story.

I think people like to be scared. I think people like tension and suspense in a movie.

People need revelation, and then they need resolution.

You never know when you're taking a job, ever... but you try to take good scripts. That's all you can do as an actor - take the best thing available. Even then, it's not [really] in your control. Certainly not in film and TV, because there are so many other elements. You just have to take control of your own performance.

I guess I'm just good at playing repressed individuals. I'm lucky because those are often the roles that catch people's eyes.

I love going for a swim. Growing up in England, anywhere with a pool seems like the height of glamour to me.

I've done classical theaters. I played Hamlet myself and Romeo.

It was pretty daunting. Normally, I never go to a gym, but before we started shooting, I thought I'd better. I reckoned I was in really good shape, and then I looked around and I was half the size of everyone else. A lot of these American actors have this - in my view - misplaced view that they have to look like Action Man. The trouble is, they all run the risk of being interchangeable.

It's good to be busy on a film set because there is a lot of sitting around, so if you've got two roles to play at one time, then that's great to do.

Acting can be a narrow and isolated experience, because you only examine your particular part.

Theres something important, as an actor, about allowing yourself to be approached by people to do roles. People see different things in you.

You have to go where the good writing is.

There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And theres a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you dont need to do so.

My parents were incredibly inclusive.

I think you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor. I'm a bit of a posh rough.

The best shows succeed because they tap into a national conversation,

I'd lived in LA for two years and I said to my agent that I wouldn't do any more network TV, because my family and I had just made the decision to live in England. It would be a whole year in LA shooting network TV.