I feel that the year ahead for me will be full of two of my favorite things: dance and acting.

The acting is something that will always be a part of my life, but the writing gives me a lot more creative freedom. You're a pawn in somebody else's chess game, whereas as a writer and as a director, you get to call the shots. And that's very thrilling.

When beautiful movie stars allow themselves to look terrible, people think they're really acting.

I think the part of my acting career where I've been more successful, I've been incredibly cushioned. People are much too nice to you. You go into politics, and people are absolutely brutal. You've got proper enemies, and they're vicious. It's very invigorating.

If you do too much acting in a lead part in a feature film where you're 40 ft. high, it's rather unattractive. You can see the acting. And it's actually the right thing to do to bring as much of yourself, I believe, to the part as you possibly can - to minimize the amount of theatrical stuff that you need to do.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of acting: character acting and lead acting. And in my life, to begin with, in the 1980s, it was all character acting. And then when, by fluke, through 'Four Weddings', I got into doing lead parts, it's a completely different thing.

After I found that I had become an actor, slightly to my surprise, I did have some insecurity, and I did take some rather strange acting classes at a place called The Actor's Studio in London. I don't think they did me any good at all.

I don't do much acting anymore anyway, and not to work for 20th Century Fox is really the least of my worries.

I'm quite proud of some of the films I've done, but less for the acting than for the fact that they're unpretentious and entertaining. I'm proud of having made unpretentious choices.

And film acting is incredibly tedious, just by its nature. It's incredibly, mind numbingly slow.

I slightly lost my enthusiasm for most acting, but I've done some little bits and pieces - curiosities.

Most actors really love it, that's what they want to do. They burn to do it. And so they'll read a script and think, that's an interesting part. And because they love acting, that blinds them to the fact that the rest of it is pretentious nonsense, which it very often is.

Frankly, I think I'm marvelous in rehearsal! Then you turn the camera on, and it gets stiff and tight. And then you trudge back to your trailer feeling sad. That's been my experience of film acting.

The great event of the evening was Jenny Lind's appearance and her complete triumph. She has a most exquisite, powerful and really quite peculiar voice, so round, soft and flexible and her acting is charming and touching and very natural.

And when the world is created it is created in such a way that those eternal objects of God's loving wisdom become actualities - interacting with one another relating to God in the finite realm.

Although it has been said by men of more wit than wisdom and perhaps more malice than either that women are naturally incapable of acting prudently or that they are necessarily determined to folly I must by no means grant it.

With acting you wanna see if you can get into trouble without knowing how you're gonna get out of it. It's like the exact opposite of war where you need an exit strategy. When you're acting you should get all the way into trouble with no exit strategy and have the cameras rolling.

Justice is rather the activity of truth than a virtue in itself. Truth tells us what is due to others and justice renders that due. Injustice is acting a lie.

Some scenes you juggle two balls some scenes you juggle three balls some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that.

I have only one rule in acting - trust the director and give him heart and soul.

I think it's a style of acting that you trust. You trust the instincts.

I was home-schooled. But going to high school I never would've been able to travel the U.S. or been able to do acting.

Movie acting is a great job for your twenties: You travel all over you have affairs with people and you throw yourself into one part and then another. It gets more challenging as you get older and it's not just having a daughter it's wanting to have your own life and be yourself.

Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors I think it is for the travel the time away and any trouble you get into through being well known. It's not for the acting that's for sure.