“Given the amount of work and time my mum devoted to my sister, it left...” — Alex Kingston Quote

Given the amount of work and time my mum devoted to my sister, it left me a lot of time to play on my own. I mean, I played with kids in the street all the time, too - I definitely wasn't denied a childhood. But I do wonder whether, in a sense, acting was my way of getting noticed.

Even when I was at school, I wanted to be liked by everyone, even the bullies. I didn't like them, but I needed to know that they liked me.

In America, people come up and to me, and I keep thinking they're going to say, 'Oh, I loved you on 'ER.'' Now it's, 'Oh, I love you on 'Doctor Who.''

One of my sisters is physically and mentally handicapped. She took a lot of my parents' attention, so I grew up in my own world, playing in my room for hours and hours.

I knew after being drafted in the 57th round that I would be swiftly replaced if I wasn't able to play through a considerable amount of pain in the minor leagues, and ultimately until I established myself as a productive, stable member of MLB.

My old life - no amount of getting used to it would have made it right.

There is still a big onus to be coached. I understand the best teams don't need a huge amount of coaching, but that's when a coach should decide not to do coaching.

Having been an actor in Hollywood for a certain amount of time, I always felt a pressure to be sort of a neutral person. 'Don't do anything to your hair. Don't tell them your age. Don't tell them you're gay. Don't tell them anything that could limit you, specify you as a person.' I always hated that, actually moved out of L.A. because of that.