“I went to see Dad in hospital after he had gone through one particular...” — Rachel Joyce Quote

“I went to see Dad in hospital after he had gone through one particularly grueling operation. I walked into the room where he was recovering, and he was sitting up in a chair, wearing his shirt and tie. That was after eight hours of surgery. I found that so moving.”

“I find that very appealing: the blurring of the lines between what's funny and what's tragic. And what's ordinary and what's not - the big things in the small things.”

“I think of myself as a very ordinary person. I like writing about the juxtaposition between people: the beauty of them at times and then the banal, everyday context in which we find ourselves.”

“I speak a little bit of Italian, yeah. I understand more than I speak. I speak more of a dialect; my mum's from Naples and my dad's from Sicily, so it comes out little a bit of a cocktail of the Italian language.”

“My mom is a therapist, and my dad has a doctorate in psychology, and growing up, I felt 'very understood.'”

“My mum and dad were incredibly supportive - although I suspect my dad would have preferred me to go the university route. However, I know they were extremely proud when I won the 2011 BAFTA Best Actor for playing comedian Eric Morecambe in 'Eric and Ernie.'”