"I'm a quite serious actor who doesn't mind being ridiculously comic."

"I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy."

"If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust."

"On film you put all your energies into a single glance."

"My parents certainly didn't have anything to do with the theater. I'm some kind of accident."

"There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do."

"What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves."

"I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting."

"All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening."

"Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over."

"It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising."

"Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility."

"I don't think it's right that everybody knows everything about me."

"One longs for a director with a sense of imagination."

"Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes."

"Each character I play has different dimensions. I'm not interested in words that pull them together."

"I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure."

"If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there's only one topic of conversation."

"When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter."

"Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive."

"Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play."

"Market forces impose certain rules before a film can actually get made."

"What's interesting about the process of acting is how often you don't know what you're doing."

"I think there's some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom."

"If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work."

"My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line."

"I've never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision."