Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
From John Huston to Fred Zinnemann and Richard Fleischer and all those great American directors.
Each day, as you get older, there is a new perspective on life. It's a progression of some sort.
For everything that you find dreadful, there's usually something that is rather marvelous as well.
It's quite a dangerous career move to go wilfully on making films that may not find a distributor.
Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.
'The Naked Civil Servant' was as important for me as 'Easy Rider' was for Jack Nicholson. No question.
With [Fred] Zinnemann I did A Man For All Seasons. He was my screen godfather. I'm happy to say he was.
Pretending to be other people is my game and that to me is the essence of the whole business of acting.
I never had any ambition to be a star, or whatever it is called, and I'm still embarrassed at the word.
I stopped asking a long time ago, "why would you want me to play that?" I'm an actor. That's what I do.
I do what interests me when I'm invited and do it as well as I know how and try to get better. That's all.
Everybody, I think, that was in 'Harry Potter' was certainly introduced to an enormous lot of young people.
My springboard is always the script. Even if the script is taken from a novel, I often haven't read the novel...
I'm not really a big musical fan. I enjoyed 'West Side Story' when it came out, but it gets a bit tired in the end.
Obviously, the arrogance of my own nature in regards to other people's work would suggest that I think I'm talented.
Half the stuff I have done which has been successful would never have been made if it had been shown to focus groups.
I love working with Lars [von Trier]! I've worked with him three times. I did the narration of Dogville and Manderlay.
If I'm in theatre, cinema doesn't even cross my mind. Similarly when I'm making a film, theatre doesn't cross my mind.
My parents felt that acting was far too insecure. Don't ask me what made them think that painting would be more secure.
I think people should be protected from being made to feel that they want to know what somebody famous had for breakfast.
The image onscreen takes you forward, it's the driving force of the piece and it's also the information that you're given.
I turn up in Los Angeles every now and then, so I can get some big money films in order to finance my smaller money films.
Some directors involve waiting, and if you want to work with that particular director you're going to have to hang around.
Picasso was hugely innovative, and, wow, did he have facility, amazing ability, but I don't think he painted a masterpiece.
I didn't want to teach. I wanted to act. It was quite a long and difficult road to get there but very thrilling when I did.
I think it would be very difficult to play somebody if they didn't think they had any virtues or redeeming characteristics.
Essentially, I am an actor for hire. I am not a rarified creature. I do all these different things, and they all interest me.
I seem to watch less and less television. The best thing in 'Downton Abbey' is Penelope Wilton. She is always worth the watch.
My fathers a clergyman, and he was in the mission field for a certain amount of time in British Honduras, which is now Belize.
My father's a clergyman, and he was in the mission field for a certain amount of time in British Honduras, which is now Belize.
I've lived publicly and never hidden behind closed doors. Therefore, if I have gone over the top sometimes, it has been visible.
Anything which retains interest is optimistic. When the characters become disinterested, it's pessimistic. Does that make sense?
The great joke is that a realist is an optimistic pessimist. That's very witty. Whether it's truthful or not, that I don't know.
The English National Opera does have some terrific productions, which are accessible, and they're not too ridiculously expensive.
A very, very impressive director, Tomas Alfredson. It's only his second film [ 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'], but he's a real find.
It would be difficult to have any unfulfilled ambitions because I don't have any ambitions. I've never been that kind of performer.
To me, nothing ever feels like a sure thing. I cling to that because it's very important you don't ever think anything is a sure thing.
When you're really working well with a director then you can be as outrageous as you like and so can he. And there's no worry about it.
I've done some stinkers in the cinema. You can't regret it; there are always reasons for doing something, even if it's just the location.
It's a great relief to feel that you're working with someone rather than for someone. You don't feel that you're being tested, as it were.
Parents are the worst teachers, if they are good at it and you're not. My father thought I was the densest offspring he could have produced.
If you do an interview in 1960, something it's bound to change by the year 2000. And if it doesn't, then there's something drastically wrong.
I left drama school and went straight into a 10-week film for which I was paid £75 I might say, which for 1962 was one heck of a lot of money.
I first got involved with Mel Brooks through 'The Elephant Man.' Everybody knows now, but they didn't know at the time that he was the producer.
Also the wonderful thing about film, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. You did realize that it is going to come to an end at some stage.
Also the wonderful thing about film, you can see light at the end of the tunnel. You did realise that it is going to come to an end at some stage.
The difference between anger and deep remorse - remorse is much fatter. It's a deeper feeling altogether. Anger is too easy an escape for my money.
I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.
Actors are not always the best judges. We have a peculiar idea of what we think we are, and sometimes it's best left to others to decide what we play.
Early on, I didn't intend to have children. I thought it was too difficult a world for them. But then it happened, and I am thrilled to have them now.