My personality is half Willy Wonka and half Charlie Bucket, the poor little latchkey kid who wins the golden ticket. Gene Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the film, had a huge impact on me when I was a kid. He was a sensitive person who had this twinkle in his eye and was very different from most of the macho role models being offered.

Most boys' first hero is their father. That was definitely true of my dad. He was a proud Irish American and he taught me a lot about ethics and responsibility. He also introduced me to a lot of wonderful folk music.

Manners are really important. Even when you want to tell someone to "bugger off" you say: "Excuse me, could you move, please?"

I considered a lot of different jobs as a kid. I thought about becoming a priest or a lawyer. My father had a big linen-supply business and I considered working for him. What dawned on me was: if I'm an actor, I get to do the fun parts of every job! Without having to go to four years of law school.

Growing up in a big family teaches you food management. I go to this Korean restaurant in Los Angeles, and you can always tell the only children, because they're sitting there with this stricken look on their face while all the food is being eaten. People like me are in there with the spoon.

If you can't live in Chicago, you can't live no place. An old blues musician told me that one time.

Hollywood is an illusion. These intense workplaces, with very close relationships, a few months at a time – and then it ends.

Don't make too many assumptions about your status in life. There are always people on film sets who are there to make your life easier as you get more well known – to get your coffee or hold your coat. But you have to push against it.

Happy families spend a lot of time together.

Every person is the star of their life story. No one goes through the world thinking: "Well, I'm just a cameo." So even if a character has just one scene, I have to do it right. I've got to come up with their whole world view.

Being unprepared makes me nervous. I'm old-fashioned showfolk.

I have a humanist attitude about the world. It's being able to have compassion and relate to other people, regardless of how well you know them.

The secret to comedy is being honest. I don't see a lot of difference between my dramatic and comedic work. You're trying to be as honest to the character as you can be, and if what they're trying to do is ridiculous, or what they're saying is stupid, then it's funny.

You've got to be careful with PG Tips. It's like rocket fuel. When I did The Hours, I was staying at the Savoy hotel and ordering tea a couple times a day. By the time I left England, I literally thought I was having a nervous breakdown.

Wreck-It Ralph is out in cinemas on 8 February