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[on his wife Dalia Ibelhauptaite] "She's the best influence on me. She's my hero and my best friend. She loves me and I really feel that. I remember lying in bed one night, alone after a bad day, and wanting very much to be with her. I realised I was happy when I was with her and in control. So I set about making her my wife".

I always devise a background so that it makes what your character goes through logical and keeps up the continuity.

I left school with no qualifications but I was doing theatre and film work and thought that was the best thing since sliced bread.

[About his role as the young Caravaggio in _Caravaggio_] "I was kind of afraid I might just end up rolling around naked on a beach. But I had this 15 minute meeting scheduled with Jarman and I ran out two hours later and bought a book about Caravaggio because Jarman was so absolutely involved and passionate."

[About playing "Sergeant John W. Martin" in Band of Brothers: Wir waren wie Brüder (2001)] "The more I spoke to John, the more I realised that we were telling a real story. We had a serious responsibility. We owed it to these men to produce something more than sentimental schlock".

I've been the teenage success, I've been homeless and driving around in my car and not knowing where to eat. You just want to keep working and learning, and I was doing that. If I hadn't done 'Wild Bill,' I'm sure I would have acted in something else.

I love walking along Leith's waterfront and wandering around some of New Town's beautiful streets and squares, with their gorgeous Georgian architecture.

I love traveling, but I have to admit I didn't initially take to Agra in India. As soon as you arrive, someone wants to show you around, take your bags or sell you something - and it's just a bit of a culture shock. You just have to make the necessary mental adjustment to the setting.

As an older and wiser man, I don't believe in luck. I believe in hard work and talent and determination.

I've been lucky enough to do theatre, film, and television for a career. Unless I get offered a job as an astronaut, I won't stray too far from it.

As an actor, there's always that fear. You don't know where the next job's coming from, so you say, 'I'll do that, I'll do that, I'll do that'. Your choices are not always clearly thought out, and you can end up taking mis-steps.

I have a natural affinity with children and adults who can't accept adult responsibility.

My first trip abroad was to do a TV version of 'Les Miserables' in France with Anthony Perkins. There I was at 12 acting with the guy from Psycho (1960). My parents were teachers, and it was hard for them to relate to that world.

I didn't make Wild Bill - Vom Leben beschissen! (2011) because I wanted to become a director; I just wanted to make 'Wild Bill.'

Make My Heart Fly - Verliebt in Edinburgh (2013) is really an experiment for me to see if I am a filmmaker beyond having my own stories to tell.

If you're not keen on crowds, it might be best to give Edinburgh a miss during festival time when it can get extremely busy.

It took me a long time to make that leap to being a grown-up and responsible adult because I carried on being a child actor into my late twenties. It's OK to be precocious when you're young, but when you're a man of about 27 or 28 and playing a 17-year-old in a TV show, it kind of prolongs your childhood.

With directing, you've got to find something and drag it up from its inception, and I'm at the early stages of doing that again. There's something all-consuming and addictive about that.

I was turning up at sets where inexperienced people were making these badly written films - but they were doing it; that was the point. They were getting their films out there. And they were paying me, so they obviously had access to money. I just thought, 'I can make something better than this.'

Spending time on 18th-century ships in Tahiti when I was 17 was quite unusual.