If I talk about Charles Dance I am talking about something else, something I operate and wind up and have to make an impression with and use to transmit someone else's screenplay.

You have to be selfish to be an actor.

I'm playing one of the principal roles, which gives you more clout and more confidence.

I'm actually as common as mud. I'm not particularly well read, or bred. But the way I look... I seem to have this sort of 'aristocratic' demeanor.

It's a question of keeping one's eyes and ears open and watching how other people play the game. They're watching me too, to see what my attitude is like.

I was a window dresser for Burton's once. What really put me off was the area manager coming round and saying, Charles, I think you're a natch at this.

A handful of older, romantic leading men, like Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Redford are still landing parts.

I spent a lot of time [between takes] apologising to Peter Dinklage [Dance's on-screen son, Tyrion Lannister] because I treat him appallingly.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

A car to pick me up every day, a chair with my name on it, everybody being very polite... what can you do except sit back and watch it all, try to take it all in?

Power is always a corrupting influence. In this mythical time - let's call it medieval, feudal - people in power are dictatorial and don't want their positions of power to be threatened.

I murmured to Picasso that I liked his portrait of Gertrude Stein. Yes, he said, everybody said that she does not look like it, but that does not make any difference, she will, he said.

There needs to be a reason to go, so you go deeper into whatever place you're visiting to find those unforgettable experiences.

Your body will never be familiar.

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.

Yeah, I don't mess with chicks younger. They got to be almost thirty.

Everything is contagious in baseball.

I can only do something that my sister or my daughter, if I have one, could watch and feel positive about.

Cram nailed his colours to the mast and threw down the Great Pretender

When you do more than you're paid for eventually you'll be paid for more than you do.