You think wisdom will come with age – it doesn't. Just confusion.

I've become more of a firebrand as I've got older. I want to right wrongs. I fall into the "angry old man" category. I wish I'd stop – it's so predictably boring.

I'm one of the lucky ones. I've pursued my passion all my life. I started out mopping the stage. Those kind of apprenticeships don't exist any more.

My dad feels kind of mythical to me, because I was eight when he died. I remember his great generosity of spirit, and because I never knew him as an adult, he never had the chance to disappoint me.

I didn't realise the power of nurture until I was going through my first divorce, in my 40s. I realised I have always had this incredible family, in the shape of my sisters, looking after me.

I'd say that my experience of women is that they constantly move the goalposts – but then I think men invented the idea of goalposts. Women know there's no such thing, that matters in life are endlessly changing. Men can't understand that, so we're always playing catch up.

I've learnt to be kinder to my children. When I was growing up, the predicaments they now find themselves in didn't exist for me.

Sir Laurence Olivier was quite elderly and frail when I worked with him. But he was a fox – he would wrongfoot people. I remember him forgetting his lines on set and saying, "Did anybody see Michael Hordern as King Lear? He knew all his lines. But I'm still a better fucking actor than he is."

We live in an age where we all want to be distracted. It's anti-work.

I have played a lot of villains and you begin to understand human nastiness, which is based on human survival. In a sense, it's a privilege to play these roles because you start to realise how people tick.

Diabetes is part of the result of addiction. Sugar is addictive and people, particularly the sugar lobby, try to pretend it's not.

I don't know about faith. I'm a mixture of an atheist, an agnostic and madly religious. The monastic life appeals – religion provides a respite from yourself.

My social sensibility comes from being Scottish. The Treaty of Arbroath [declaring Scottish independence in 1320] invented the possibility of egalitarianism. And it's where we're hopefully heading after the referendum in September.

I'm a Gemini, and we're great technophiles. I'm surrounded by gadgets now.

Professor Brian Cox is the bane of my life. He's a remarkable young man and does a remarkable job, but it is irritating to keep being confused with him: "Can you come on TV and discuss quantum physics?"

Brian Cox stars in The Weir at Wyndham's Theatre, London, until 19 April (theweirlondon.co.uk)