Top 60 Quotes & Sayings by Tom Payne

I went on Skins' when I was 23, and everyone else was about 17. It was like being back at school.

When I was on 'The Walking Dead,' I was working with some great actors, but I wasn't working very much. It wasn't stretching me very much.

Honestly, a lot of the time, I'm like, 'Oh, my god, I've got so many lines to learn,' that I have to focus and get in into a bit of a zone, but there are always moments to have some fun.

One thing I love about America is that I'm not boxed in by my upbringing here. England is still so class-based that there are certain roles that I just won't go for. I'm a middle-class boy and I won't go for the scruffy working-class role, which is frustrating, and here I can play anything.

I just wanted to be part of telling a good story that shocks people.

There's no way I can grow a Jesus beard in a week.

Well, conventions are so cool, because I just feel like I'm giving out smiles all day, it's so fun, and you get people who are hysterically crying.

I think one of the reasons why The Walking Dead' has been such a successful show is that Andrew Lincoln led that show so incredibly well, from the front, and treated everyone so amazingly, behind the scenes and in public.

Had I stayed in England, I would have had to take at least a few acting jobs just for the money.

I wasn't thinking about awards or becoming rich. I just wanted to be able to make my living by working as an actor.

There aren't that many actors with hair like this. And Amazon are casting Aragorn and they're doing Interview with the Vampire' on Hulu, so there's all these good jobs.

I've led movies before, but not a TV show, and it's a different beast. You have to pace yourself more.

The whole experience of being on The Walking Dead' is a singular experience.

It just makes me so happy that I can give someone a smile by just saying hello. That's pretty cool.

I love the way America is so aspirational. I really like the attitude that you can be anything you want to be as long as you're willing to work for it.

I had an audition notice from my agent telling me the fake name of the part with a short description. I knew it was for The Walking Dead' but had no idea of what the part would end up being.

My whole life has changed in the last three years and The Walking Dead' is no small part of that. It's changed my life and will continue to do so.

Being in a long-running series is great because it gives you so many opportunities - but at the same time it's a bit desk jobby: you go to the same place every day, you do the same thing and you play the same character.

When you don't know how to fight you tend to put all your energy into one punch. That will tire you out quickly. You learn to keep energy in reserve and use your body in an efficient manner.

When I was about 6 years old, I got dragged into an audition for the school play. A teacher thought it would be good for me because I liked to perform and show off.

Never in my life did I think I would be walking down the street and people would shout 'Jesus!' at me in the street. It's quite amusing.

There's no difference between a gay person and a heterosexual person at the end of the day.

I was in this motorcade, and I was like, I'm with Michael Mann and Nick Nolte and I'm in a TV show. Oh, my God!'

With something like Waterloo Road' it was a lot slower and because I had a relatively small part - I mean, my character wasn't a main - I wasn't in filming so much.

I was a gymnast when I was younger but sadly didn't really keep it up with age.

If you want to survive the zombie apocalypse, you need to focus on increasing your stamina.

People say, 'Oh, are you tired of the Jesus jokes yet?' I can't get tired of the Jesus jokes because this is the rest of my life!

I have a gym membership, but that's always been more about muscle building for roles.

If you want to succeed, you have to take the necessary risks and the occasional leap in the dark.

When learning boxing and martial arts, there wasn't any fakery in my training. When teaching you the basics of fighting, even though it's faked for the camera, they teach you to do it for real.

I have no wish to go back to being frustrated by a character. It's really just part of being on an ongoing series. You're constantly hoping the next episode you get, something will happen for you. You're on the edge of your seat all the time, pressing your hands together and hoping that something cool will turn up.

I used to love auditioning. I loved going into the room and meeting casting directors.

I was on the tube the other day and it was after the Chelsea match and everyone was going crazy screaming across at each other. I just can't imagine ever getting that excited about it!

I had been working in England since 2005 when I left drama school.

I did a movie called 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,' which had Frances McDormand and Amy Adams in it. It was Focus Features, an American company, and I used that as my ticket into America.

I have a new appreciation for how fit martial artists are. There is so much energy being exerted when you fight.

I'm 26, and I'm finally getting to play characters in their early twenties.

I'm a huge Highlander' fan.

There's years of growth and emotions in that hair. And it gets cut off and you're like, 'I'm really metamorphosing into something else. I'm emerging.'

Hugh Jackman, he's so tall and big, he had to eat so much. It's like Chris Hemsworth. You have to eat so much and spend so much money on food.

When you have that fake beard and stuff stuck on your face, you can't move your face. It's just not fun.

So, yeah, if I could play anyone, I think it would be Black Panther.

It's possible to shoot two TV shows. It's absolutely possible, it's not something I would choose to do. It does sound completely miserable.

I'm not really a dreamer, but I do believe you can do anything you want to do and make a success of it.

I can't remember what episode it is but there's an episode of Prodigal Son' where I wake up in my underwear and, you can see, I can put the beef on!

I was quite discerning the first year and when I was doing 'The Vampire Diaries' thing I was like, 'I'm really not sure if I want to do this; it's this whole teen thing, which I've done in England.' My agent was like, 'Don't be silly, you'll make great money and everything.' But I wasn't sure.

In my teenage years I had a very anti-cruelty orientation and all that kind of stuff, so having spent a long time at the track and around the horses and around the people that are there, I realized the saddest thing that can happen is if anything happens to a horse.

One of the reasons why I'm an actor is that I don't want to do the same thing every day.

'Prodigal Son' actually came along a lot quicker than I was expecting my next job to come. I was prepared to take a while off, but then it was such a good opportunity that I couldn't turn it down.

I never believe it when people claim they knew they wanted to be actors when they were 4 or 5 years old. I think that's rubbish. When you're that age, you just like showing off.

The right thing is to look after people and women and women's rights to their own bodies.

I'm definitely an animal lover.

'Downton Abbey' is my worst nightmare. I just hate that whole 'Upstairs Downstairs' thing, I think it's really lazy and it doesn't represent England, it's this postcard view.

Jockeys - it's so difficult It's completely insane. You're balancing on the balls of your feet on the spine of a horse and it's like you're piloting a missile It's amazing. I think jockeys are stunt men.

If they did recast the Wolverine part, I'd be well up for it.

All great leaders choose great advisors, people they really trust for their governance.

There are things that happen, at different times in your life. You go through natural changes in life, when you reach your 30s, mid-30s and 40s, and you go through these different stages.

I've lived in California for years.

I think, primarily, acting is like working out a muscle; the more you get to do it, the bigger that muscle gets.

You have to take gambles in life.