It's no fun for an actor to keep repeating what you did before. It's always changing. I'm changing. The target keeps moving. That's the beauty of it.

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.

If God wanted the sky to be empty, He would not have given birds wings to fly.

No one knows how another person feels in private.

Ideas are cheap. Writing them into a freakin' 90k word novel is the hard part.

This is a time, when there seems to be a particular need for friends of wisdom and truth to join together.

During periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and can produce the sudden clarifying insights which give so much joy and delight.

Bull-markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism and die on euphoria.

Pressure is always a part of a racing driver's life, but my father helped me a lot on my way to becoming a F1 driver.

Someone has to do everything that is done.

Let your imagination release your imprisoned possibilities

There is a good life waiting for you. Its just waiting for you to grab it