I instinctively dress a bit tougher because I've spent a lot of time in the U.S. and I realised there was a certain image projected of me here. I've always been an absolute rebel. When I was in my teen years I had piercings and wore all black.

So there was a fire inside me. And that fire inside you it can be turned into a negative form or a positive form. And I gradually realised that I had this fire and that it had to be used in a positive way.

A lot of men in politics suddenly woke up to the issue of women in politics when they realised: hey there are votes in this!

I realised a long time ago that instrumental music speaks a lot more clearly than English Spanish Yiddish Swahili any other language. Pure melody goes outside time.

I didn't know this about myself but when 'Pirates of the Caribbean' came out I realised that I didn't enjoy a huge amount of recognition. I didn't react to it well but I think life is about finding out who you are and what you like. So I started doing independent movies and art-house films instead.

You can't live your life blaming your failures on your parents and what they did or didn't do for you. You're dealt the cards that you're dealt. I realised it was a waste of time to be angry at my parents and feel sorry for myself.

Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.

It was only when I finished the course and left my graduation diploma on the bus that I realised I'd become an actor.

When I turned about 12 or 13 I realised that being funny wasn't about remembering jokes. It was about creating them.

So what I do now is to pre-empt that by making the up into a virtue and telling funny stories about how crap I am before people have a chance to notice it for themselves and think maybe I haven't realised.

As a five-year-old in Berlin in 1965 I didn't know that funny women existed. It wasn't until I got back to England that I realised women could be funny.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

I'm often asked if I regret not going to Hollywood. I'm glad I didn't go because if I had I wouldn't have my extended family which is the fabric of my life. Only recently have I realised how special and unusual it is.

I realised how paranoid and guarded and not trusting - walled-in - I had become. Not consciously so but just this armour that I kind of have protective armour. It's not for my friends or family but for being.outside in the world always on guard.

I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the 'Today' programme and item four on the news was: 'The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.' I lay there thinking that's interesting then I realised it was me.

I've never been bashful to say that I'm not really interested in Formula One. When I lived in England it's all I wanted to do and I thought that anything else would somehow be a compromise to my dreams. But then when I came back to the States I realised how much I loved being back in the States.

I realised I could run after finding out that my dad used to run and it gave me the morale that if he did it then maybe I could also run.