Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I can be intolerant.
I was not driven by fame and fortune.
I needed to be an actor more than anything.
I wouldn't like to get trapped in a long series.
The ups and downs are part of what has made you.
I started at the Incognito Theatre as an amateur.
I always say it is not the arrival; it is the journey.
I go with my wife Gill to the supermarket, but not often.
Journalists are out to trap me with my underwear showing.
I was never good academically. It was mainly my own fault.
People tend to feel that if you're a comedian, you can't act.
Comedy is a funny business, which you have to take seriously.
Classic comedy is classic comedy, and it will go on for years.
I'm happier being out of the limelight, at home with the family.
While I'm hale and hearty, I've no thought in my mind to retire.
All my work's been disguise, really: hiding behind the character.
Being an actor is like being a monk: you have got to be dedicated.
I rarely go out, and I am not interested in golf or anything like that.
I shall act until I drop. I just want to keep doing it and making it fun.
I'm a qualified Professional Association of Diving Instructors Divemaster.
After leaving school, I worked as an electrician before becoming an actor.
Despite offers, I have never felt the urge to try to make it in Hollywood.
John Sullivan's scripts were always very funny, and cast and crew got on well.
Ronnie Barker was a man whom I thought more deserving of a knighthood than me.
You can't make people enjoy what you're doing unless you're enjoying it yourself.
I have a yellow labrador, Tuffy, and a little rescue dog, Bella, who is the boss.
In this business, you have to have what they call an idiotic determination to succeed.
My desperation to be on the stage and perform was like a vocation, a religious calling.
I grew up in London, a city devastated by the bombing. I am, you might say, a Blitz Baby.
I will continue to entertain the great British public. Because that is what I love doing.
It's very nice to meet people who just get on, work hard, and don't have things handed to them.
I enjoy the work; I just don't like the glamour side of it. I find that very difficult to handle.
Working with Ronnie Barker was always a joy and were without doubt some of the best years of my career
I joined an amateur drama group as a teenager, fell in love with theatre, and it totally changed my life.
I'm an actor, and so of course I want to see TV companies making good dramas. I want that to be a priority.
When I was a lad, my parents and all their equivalents never lusted after other people's riches or success.
My father, Arthur, was a fishmonger, first at Billingsgate market and later in Camden Town and Golders Green.
I hadn't been to drama school. I hadn't been to university and acted there. I had no qualifications behind me.
When you're young, for God's sake, get out and try everything in terms of a career. Or go abroad, meet people.
That's humour - doing what funny people have done since comedy began without being edgy and pushing boundaries.
My father used to say, 'What the hell are you listening to? Put that bloody rubbish off.' And it was The Beatles.
While I've got my health and fitness, I'm available... except for panto, of course. Too bloody much like hard work.
I deliberately decided not to go on Twitter. I've read about how much stress it can cause. I don't think it's healthy.
'House Of Cards' with Kevin Spacey - I love how it portrays humans in power as just like the rest of us - but even worse.
Anybody who wants to make television has a tremendous problem because it's a financially restrictive media in this day and age.
I want to encourage young people to get up off the sofa and get out there - as long as you want something hard enough, you can do it.
I was a very shy sort of person, and by acting different characters, I could immerse myself and make them do what, perhaps, I wouldn't do.
People ask me if I am thinking of retiring. Well, it doesn't occur to me. Different day, different challenge, different way. Lovely jubbly.
If I want to go out to a restaurant with some friends, I'm more than happy that we go in under the radar, have a little evening on our own.
When I made my first decision, come hell or high water, that I would try to be a professional actor, I was burnt. Emotionally, I was burnt.