"I like working on things that are very different and that involve different disguises."
"Actually I like working kind of fast, because if you got it, why bother doing it over and over?"
"It is not hard to feel like an outsider. I think we have all felt like that at one time or another."
"It's really rare for film directors to be that interested in things other than themselves."
"Nowadays people don't know how to handle it if all the ends aren't tied up and they're not told what to think in films. And if they're challenged, they think it's something wrong with the film."
"Sometimes people get really sniffy about the films you choose if you've done more dramatic projects or you're classically trained."
"I love a film where I get squished by two dumpsters or I fly through the air."
"Kids are more genuine. When they come up and want to talk to you, they don't have an agenda. It's more endearing and less piercing to your aura."
"I think directing in a team is a really good idea because it stops the cult of the director as God straight away, and also you're discussing things on set so it opens it out to everyone and it becomes a totally collaborative thing. And you have someone who supports you when you're feeling a bit insecure."
"There are some days when you don't feel like being Alan Cumming."
"Pantomime is a big thing in the cultural calendar of my country, you know. So subtlety's not my forte."
"I think you can be as big as you like as long as you mean it. I really do."
"When there's an adult person who's scaring you, you grow up pretty quickly."
"The thing with film and theater is that you always know the story so you can play certain cues in each scene with the knowledge that you know where the story's going to end and how it's going to go. But on television nobody knows what's going to happen, even the writers."
"When you're on TV, you come into people's homes. In theater and film, they go to you - to the temple of the cinema or theater. And it's very different."
"I'm not a fan of Twitter."
"So the experts think we could have an AIDS-free generation in Africa by 2015, even if the mothers are positive."
"You'll see Dame Judi Dench in a Bond film, in Shakespeare and then starring in her own sitcom. You never see that here with Meryl Streep."
"I'm Scottish first, and it's odd to hear that I'm a Scottish-American."
"For example, Americans seem reluctant to take on Shakespeare because you don't think you're very good at it - which is rubbish. You're missing out here."
"Actors aren't stupid, mostly, and if there's a sensibility and an aesthetic that a director's going for, if you're aware of that too, you can do things to help that."
"I think American actors are much more intimidated by Shakespeare."
"I usually can find a way to do a character to make it real and work. But sometimes it's a struggle sustaining that, because there's such a level of personal involvement and personal, physical, and emotional distraughtness."
"You do get really exhausted doing films. You work such long hours, and after a while, things can get out of perspective, just like if anyone's tired, things get on top of them."
"I don't avoid anyone but I always think some people hate me."
