We haven’t even touched on poetry. “And the wave sings because it is moving” – that poem by Larkin – I had it on my fridge for a while, and then it was in a folded-up piece of paper by my bed for four years, because it moved me so much, and yet I couldn’t quite work out what it was about. Well, I think in the end it’s about death – but there’s more marrow in it.

He still – how predictable am I? – but he does still take my breath away. For someone who was such a great creator of characters, he’s also incredibly gentle in suggesting it’s you. Hamlet, in particular, is one.When you play him, he leaves so much room for him to be you.

Another perspective on reading and interpreting the written word is theatre. Shakespeare, in a way for me, was a real signal, as a schoolboy. I remember sitting in a class at 13 or 14, and we were reading The Merchant of Venice, and I found it easy – I just saw it.

Someone recently gave me the re-editions of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts, supposedly for the kids, but I was like: those are mine. They’re going in my library! When I was a kid, Americana was a vague flirtation, so you’d maybe watch Dallas or Starsky and Hutch.

Inside our own head, we’re all our leading man or leading lady. She seemed to tap into that. And also, in some of them – I’m thinking of The Italian Girl – there’s a fantastical quality, a world of poetry, but all in the characters’ perception of their lives. They’re almost domestic scenarios that are whipped into fairy tales.

That was an interesting turn in my life – reading to my kids, because my dad read a lot to me. Salman Rushdie, who I’d read as an adult, I then read his two Haroun books to them.

I read The Hobbit three times – to each of the children. I read it to Raf, then to Rudy, then to Iris. They loved it.

But also, one of the things that was a left-of-field influence at that time was The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. The idea of walking away from problems, that life is a constant journey – that, poetically, had a massive influence on Inman [his character in that film, an American Civil War deserter].

But then, from that you go to things like Whitman – or even, funnily enough, I remember buying the book of Bob Dylan’s lyrics. And Red Badge of Courage [Stephen Crane], because you just want to submerge yourself.

But then, from that you go to things like Whitman – or even, funnily enough, I remember buying the book of Bob Dylan’s lyrics. And Red Badge of Courage [Stephen Crane], because you just want to submerge yourself.

An interesting journey I went on was when I did Cold Mountain [Anthony Minghella’s 2003 film of Charles Frazier’s book]. So there’s this extraordinary book, which became the 'bible’.

I remember loving The Indian in the Cupboard [by Lynne Reid Banks]; I remember reading Fluke by James Herbert. Emil and the Detectives was a favourite of mine.

I remember loving The Indian in the Cupboard [by Lynne Reid Banks]; I remember reading Fluke by James Herbert. Emil and the Detectives was a favourite of mine.

When Wes Anderson cast him in The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was based on the writing of Stefan Zweig, Law was stunned by Zweig’s merciless novel Beware of Pity, and the last book Zweig wrote before he killed himself, Chess Story.

When Wes Anderson cast him in The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was based on the writing of Stefan Zweig, Law was stunned by Zweig’s merciless novel Beware of Pity, and the last book Zweig wrote before he killed himself, Chess Story.