Inevitably, every part an actor plays contains some of himself.

I'm never bored, never ever bored. If I've got a day off I'll sit in a cafe and watch and observe. I'm a great observer.

A successful swindler has to be a great salesman even more than a great actor.

When I was 16, I made some little 35mm documentaries about the poor in London. I went round Notting Hill, which was a real slum in the 1950s, shooting film.

Deep inside, I am desperate to do comedy.

I don't really want people to see me. I'm not into stardom.

I love music, especially classical like Verdi; it's a great way to relax.

I am very traditional as a man. I am not modern and never have been. I think I was born 50 years of age and out of my time.

Although I'm a very emotional man, I just can't have blind faith, I have to find out for myself.

I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation.

I became fascinated by the fact that people write to give away rather than write to be read. It's the difference between playwrights and novelists.

Thirty-two steps until Haley Tremaine entered hell. Thirty-two steps until she walked into the smell of alcohol and burned microwaveable meals, into a place where fear overwhelmed.

War is cruelty, and none can make it gentle.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

It's easy to forget what intelligence consists of: luck and speculation. Here and there a windfall, here and there a scoop.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

It's a personality trait: from the very beginning, I knew what I was concentrating on. I'm only doing the kernel - I always found everything around it to be completely boring.

Like the herd animals we are, we sniff warily at the strange one among us.

How cruel it must be for a man to live past his soul.

The creator of the universe works in mysterious ways. But he uses a base ten counting system and likes round numbers.

There is no magical solution because urban traffic congestion arises from the fact that a lot of people want to be in the same place at the same time often.