It's fair to say that if you have a lot of experience, your power is greater. You have more of an opportunity to roll up your sleeves with younger directors.

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.

But life, they said, means life. Dying inside.The Devil was evil, mad, but I was the Devil's wifewhich made me worse. I howled in my cell.If the Devil is gone then how could this be hell?

We finish our own story. The details of our journey are still a mystery.

In England everyone puts a lot of pressure on you when you have cost a lot of money.

You have to know your own truth and stick to it. And never despair. Never give up. There's always hope.

No one will want a piece of us in 2009.

The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.

A man's relationship with the Bible is an exact picture of His relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

At times I ask myself if I shouldnt be living a more regular, stable life with a 9-to-5 job. Then I think about it and realise that there is no point in planning everything.

I waited two thousand years for you, Grace Alexander,” he whispered in her ear. “And you were worth every second of it.

The most intelligent thing you can possibly do with your life is to grow.