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.

TV is so different from the movies. It takes a lot of stamina because you work such long hours. It is really challenging. You are learning the next day's lines while you are shooting today's scenes. I found courage I never realised I had. I hope to do more.

That was when I realised that music is the most profound magical form of communication there is.

I thought my life was mapped out. Research living in the forest teaching and writing. But in '86 I went to a conference and realised the chimpanzees were disappearing. I had worldwide recognition and a gift of communication. I had to use them.

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct only I was in a different dimension.

I realised the bohemian life was not for me. I would look around at my friends living like starving artists and wonder 'Where's the art?' They weren't doing anything. And there was so much interesting stuff to do so much fun to be had... maybe I could even quit renting.

I realised one day that men are emotional cripples. We can't express ourselves emotionally we can only do it with anger and humour. Emotional stability and expression comes from women.