Bridget Jones is part of literary lore now and actually to be a part of it is enormously flattering.

Men fear most what they cannot see.

I'm a big believer in acts of kindness, no matter how small.

You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.

Nothing brings you closer together than blind terror.

On his fight scene with Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones: It was a delicious experience.

Less racist now but it has been. I don't think it's been completely stamped out. There's a class element to it. And who's supposed to do what. You're very unlikely to get a gay grip.

I don't know if there's a problem with original ideas... I think a healthy film industry should have a good supply of good, original writing.

To work effectively in a film, you have to repeat and work consistently. Basically, you shoot a big master then you do close-ups. You're supposed to be in the same moment, the same 30-second moment, for a day.

Looking in the mirror, staring back at me isn't so much a face as the expression of a predicament.

I was delighted to become a popular-culture reference point. I'm still delighted about it actually, and I still find it to be weird.

As much as the next person, I want to be approved of, but I'm not greedy for that stuff.

No matter how much technique you draw on or how much training you have, acting is a mystery.

I love you even when you're sick and look disgusting.

The last thing I would attempt to do is to buy clothes for a child I didn't know well.

To be bothered wherever you go - it's not a rational thing to want at all.

It does help to actually realize that however stunning the person who is, you know, fluttering eyelashes at you, she doesn't do anything to match up to your wife.

Whenever you take on playing a villain, he has to cease to be a villain to you. If you judge this man by his time, he's doing very little wrong.

When I look in the mirror, I don't see my Dad, I see my grandmother. For a while it was my mother looking back at me. If only it was my Dad.