I can't ever see myself playing the romantic lead because that's not me; I'm not that girl.

When I was younger, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, but I told a lot of lies in school. I told my friends once that I was playing John Travolta's daughter in a movie. I also told people that I had this romantic affair with Jonathan Taylor Thomas over a summer.

I was comfortable in my thirties playing the romantic partner, the hero that saves the day, or the woman who is facing a world that revolves around younger kid actors.

It's glorious to be able to go onto the Internet and hear any kind of music anywhere, from anywhere, and get it instantly. But there's also something glorious about having a record with a sleeve and looking at the artwork, putting it on the turntable and playing it, there's still something romantic to me about that.

I like playing off strong actors, whether it's Benedict Cumberbatch or Dominic Cooper. Also I'm a hopeless romantic, so I'm fascinated by relationships.

My mom had this romantic notion of her children playing classical music. The idea is you learn it when you're still learning language. It's using the same part of the brain.

When you're playing a romantic version of a real person, you're playing a version of the truth.

I'm sick of playing romantic leads.

And I don't believe that children are innocent. In fact, no one seriously believes that. Just go to a playground and watch the kids playing in the sandbox! The romantic notion of the sweet child is simply the parents projecting their own wishes.

I am the actor that I am. I do what I do. I've been a 'leading man' playing romantic leads for a long time now.

The audiences know their actors. Didn't Shah Rukh Khan have a romantic image despite playing a dad in 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai?'

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

The early music I heard was Top of the Pops. But in bedrooms, around the house with my brother playing the Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and the Ham and all these groups then going into that sort of mod turnover scene and then going into the New Romantics scene the coming of age myself in the mid-eighties and into the noughties, it was changing.

The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing, but it was a success.

Most of my stories, if not all of them, have some basis in real life. That's the kind of fiction I'm most interested in. I suppose that's one reason I don't have much respect for fiction that seems to be game playing.

I really respect Zakk Wylde's guitar playing and his compulsive work ethic.

Australia - not western in geography, of course, but in every other respect for sure (it certainly doesn't want to be regarded as Asian, God forbid) - loves nothing more than to throw its weight around in South-East Asia by playing peacekeeper, carrying out its role as the United States' regional policeman.

When I was playing before I retired, I never really understood the appreciation and the respect that people gave me. People had treated me like a god or something, and that was very embarrassing.

In BJP & RSS, there are good people I respect, but some are playing dirty games.

When I was in Cardiff, playing with the National Orchestra of Wales, they said they get letters from people complaining if they're smiling during the concert. Nuts, isn't it? As if you have to respect the solemnity of the music by not smiling. Music is this joyful thing that enriches our lives, and you're not supposed to smile?

If you begin to think you are solely responsible for keeping your loved one alive and safe, you will eventually find yourself playing God. This phase can develop into an unhealthy, codependent relationship.

It's actually meditative to sit in a character for an extended period of time, realizing what your relationship is to who you're playing and then letting go, just being there.

The relationship in Pantera and with Damageplan is the opposite of the traditional rhythm section. It's me and Dime, not the bass, locking in always. Dime's such a strong rhythm player that we just walk in, and we're good to go. We've been playing together forever, and when he goes somewhere, I instinctively know where he's going.

Playing a character who's dealing not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship is easy to associate with, because I feel that everyone has been through it.