Tim Pigott-Smith

When I get thinking, I get very knotted up. I chew things over a lot and take things quite seriously.

In television, I was first cast as a cavalry officer because of my name.

You can't keep a hero down, can you?

I would say that the money that was invested in me by Warwickshire Education Authority, which they did for five years, has been repaid a hundred times over. I have paid a lot more back to them in tax than they paid in support to me, but they helped me on my way - they launched me; they got me going.

If you can't educate your citizens and you can't keep them healthy, you can't begin to be a society.

When I was 16, we moved to live in Stratford-Upon-Avon. That was the year of Paul Scofield's 'Lear.' I think he is still widely perceived as the only actor who has got his flag at the top of the mountain.

When you're in a good play and a good production, you find that you're in something that has a life beyond you. You think, 'Oh my goodness, this play's alive.'

My parents were fantastic. I was an only child, so I had a lot of love and too much attention. I don't think I was spoilt. My mother was quite a disciplinarian, but I did have a lot of attention and quite a lot of pressure to do well at whatever I was doing.

My memory is quite good, except when I'm off stage.

I was really uncomfortable with fame. I mean, it's lovely and flattering, and you enjoy all the razzmatazz and being flown around, but when people suddenly call you a star, you think, 'I'm not a star, I'm just playing a star role.'

You had to be there at the time to understand the wild creative energy of the Fab Four, and this contains forays into Indian music as well as classics such as 'When I'm Sixty-Four.'

I like jazz, and Martin Taylor and his band have it all, including a wonderful saxophonist and very fine accordionist, so you get a rather unusual range of sound.

I like songs to mean something as well as sound good, and Paul Simon is a maestro. While Art Garfunkel was a voice and moved on to other things Simon remained the genius lyricist and composer.

What makes Biarritz special, as far as I'm concerned, are the fantastic coastline, the beaches - such as the Cotes des Basques - and the sea.

I used to think the actor's job was immersing himself completely in another personality.

After 'Jewel In the Crown,' I hardly worked at all for about six months - which came as a bit of a surprise, I have to admit.

Performing King Charles in Mike Bartlett's astonishing play in London and New York has been one of the high points of my career.

Drama at Bristol was an academic course: you were judged on your A-levels, and there were no auditions. I did a BA General degree.

Your response to literature is to do with maturity; if you don't respond to a book or a poem when you are 12, you might when you are 13.

I'm quite sharp but not particularly academic.