I definitely don't see myself as an actor. I don't even have it on my passport. I've got 'writer and electrician' on my passport. I don't want anyone to think I'm an actor.

I'm a working-class former apprentice electrician; at the age of 14, if you'd told me I would one day be standing on a stage with Mel Brooks, I'd have thought you were off your head. But these things can happen.

I honestly don't class myself as a songwriter. I've got 'musician' written on my passport. That's even funnier.

A critic once described me as an 'amiable beanpole.' I got it printed on a T-shirt.

Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

I think the problem I have is that first impressions are the ones that stick with people. And people's first impressions of me are obviously from the film, from 'Gregory's Girl.'