Quotes from Art Malik

The bagel budget for 'Sex and the City 2' could pay for 'Ghosted.'

I'm lucky: I've got great photogenic eyes. You're up and running if you've got that and one brain cell to attach it to.

I always think it's kind of fun to get to the airport early, check in, and then go and have a meal before getting on the plane.

I decided to go and find India on my own. So, I hired a cab for a drive round old Delhi. I was knocked off center by the sheer energy that goes into daily survival.

To see the difference between when I came to Britain in 1955 with what it is today, to see how the sub-continent has been embraced, it is quite extraordinary.

I grew up in a Britain where 'Paki-bashing' was around in my late teens from the National Front. We also had 'Pakis Go Home,' and even 'Jewel In The Crown' attracted this sort of comment.

There are certain things that I know I don't want to do anymore. Playing out-and-out terrorists who terrorise people and don't actually move the conversation on are not worth doing. So that's probably another reason I don't go back to America, because a lot of it is like that. It's boring, dull, very lazy writing.

Acting's a job. I act to fill the fridge.

I do sometimes cook myself, and I do enjoy it, though it does depend what's in the fridge, and filming can mean I don't have much time.

How can you turn down Marks and Gran? Their scripts are so rich in texture.

I questioned the blind faith demanded by my religion, which was Islam.

When will we get a female director-general of the BBC? Where is the colour when you go further up the food chain? It disappears.

I have therapy. Every day. I read a bit of Freud; I try to be a better person. Every day.

My work is really simple. They say 'action,' I do my stuff; they say, 'cut!'

I jumped at the chance of doing 'Holby.' It's a great show.

My idea of a great holiday is not to go out. It's to find somewhere where I'm not confronted by people coming up to me and saying, 'You're Art Malik, aren't you?' It's quite nice sometimes not to be recognised.

You can watch TV and see experts of all different colours and hues. But the minute you get past nine o'clock and you're in primetime drama land, it's like entering another world, one that doesn't reflect the diversity of the society that we have in Britain in 2016.

I was doing 'Homeland' and read the first two episodes, and all I wanted was episode three to know what would happen next.

Having portrayed English-speaking Indian characters in British and American projects, I have always wanted to use my mother tongue in an Indian film.

There was so much racism when I was a kid, but it was also ignorant.

The easiest bit is when you're talking. It's listening that is so difficult. If you get out any Spencer Tracy film, you think, 'Wow, he's doing nothing, yet he's doing everything.'

When we were discussing 'Holby City, 'I told the producers that I wanted the Art Malik character to be honourable, and my other requirement was that he be a Muslim, because we need Muslims on TV.

I hope to work in Indian films again. I would love to.

Am I overjoyed when somebody says, 'Oh, we're going to do another Jane Austen?' No - because there's never anything in it for me.