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My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.
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My closest friends are Roger Moore, who is an actor, Sean Connery, who is an actor, Terry O'Neill, who is a photographer, Johnny Gold, who was the boss of Tramp, and Leslie Bricusse, who is a composer.
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I'd never been in one of those great big blockbusters.
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Hey, I always say: if you want a quiet life, become a monk.
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I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.
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We should vote for the welfare of the country, not for the welfare of the party.
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My father was a fish market porter. So I grew up on fish, because he used to steal one a day, I grew up on the very best fish that money could buy, 'cause he only stole the good stuff.
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Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.
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I always say to my wife, don't tell anyone I watch this shows like The X Factor and Pop Idol, but it fascinates me because I've done so many auditions and been knocked back.
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Am I a car aficionado? No: for me, cars have always been just for transport. I didn't even know anyone who had a car until I was 14 or 15.
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One of the great things with comedy is that there's no such thing as a mediocre comedy; it's either uproarious or crap. That's the problem.
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You're never too old to be crazy.
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Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.
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I always exposed the weakness rather than the nastiness.
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The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.
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I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them jokes against yourself. If you praise yourself, your stories aren't funny.
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No matter what the reason, if you start to scream and shout, you look a fool, and you feel a fool, and you earn the disrespect of everyone.
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I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
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To me, growing old is great. It's the very best thing - considering the alternative.
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I'm looking for me to disappear, and the acting to disappear, and all you see is a real person.
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Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.
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Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.
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When I was 6 my father went to fight in the war, so he was my big hero. I thought he was the greatest thing.
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I'm very much more choosy now. I do stuff that I really, really, really like.