I don't worry so much about the audience. I want them very much to be involved and enjoy the movie, but I try to just inhabit the character in a full way, where I can create a personal stake.

I was born William. My father was William. I came from a big family, I hated being called Billy. Willem's a nickname; it's a Dutch name, very common in the Netherlands.

The worst thing is to get involved with people who aren't passionate about what they're doing.

The English Patient' is about the coming together of a French-Canadian nurse, an English patient, a Sikh in a turban and me, Caravaggio, and each of us is seeking a resolution to our own problems.

Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.

I never act. I simply bring out the real animal that's in me.

Sometimes I think women are lucky because they can develop in ways men can't. The old-boy network may be oppressive to women, but it actually stunts men in terms of personal growth.

The mask can be a limitation, but you just deal with it. You do get superhuman strength and pumpkin bombs and all this other stuff to express yourself with.'

You have to lose yourself to find yourself.

Action breeds inspiration more than inspiration breeds action.

I guess they often cast me as the bad guy, because I'm not, er, conventional looking. I look sort of violent. I'm the odd one out, the outsider.

You’re frustrated because you keep waiting for the blooming of flowers of which you have yet to sow the seeds.

Empower people to achieve their calling

Maybe art itself was a kind of voodoo, possessing you, giving you supernatural power, letting you see in the dark.

God is in control of all events and is able to protect and provide for you His child.

Some days I’mtrying to forcea smile sohard it feelslike I mightshit my pants

I would give something to know for whose sake precisely those deeds were really done which report says were done for the fatherland.

We cannot expect to be happy always ... by experiencing evil as well as good we become wise.

I just don't fit into the box.

You are Brilliant and the Earth is Hiring.

The secret of life', he said, 'is to become very very good at somethin' that's very very 'ard to do.