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I'd like to be known for my character.

In my work, I want to convince people that I'm that character. If they know everything about Lesley Manville - private life, all of that stuff - it doesn't help. So the kind of anonymity I enjoy is key.

Once you have a central character who announces in the first five minutes of the show that he feels whooped by life and that he's had enough, I'm in. I'm hooked.

I will either be famous or infamous.

I'm no longer going to play thugs or debauched cops that I can't possibly make complex characters. I'm bigger than that. I owe too much to too many good people at the Goodman, Arena and Playwrights Horizons.

I wouldn't like to be a character in one of my books!

I'm always going to be someone that people enjoy watching.

Given what I do to my characters, I'm not sure I'd want to meet any of them.

There is always going to be a little bit of me in each character.