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There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk.
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Chris and Toby are far too sane to be upset any more.
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An actor is somebody who communicates someone else's words and emotions to an audience. It's not me. It's what writers want me to be.
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I've been playing old parts forever. I play 93 quite often. When you've done it more than once, you take the hint. I think it's a great burden if you're one of those fantastic stars who've always been beautiful; then I think it's hard.
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I think lots of actors are very nervous and shy. I know lots of them who are, and some who aren't of course.
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I know there is something out there and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad.
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The chemotherapy was very peculiar, something that makes you feel much worse than the cancer itself, a very nasty thing. I used to go to treatment on my own, and nearly everybody else was with somebody. I wouldn't have liked that. Why would you want to make anybody sit in those places?
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The performances you have in your head are always much better than the performances on stage.
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I longed to be bright and most certainly never was. I was rather hopeless, I suspect.
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People think of you differently if you've been in their homes. They think they own you because they watched you while they were eating dinner, or they can turn you up or down, or even freeze you.
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Old people are scary. And I have to face it. I am old and I am scary.
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I fear that I won't work in the theatre again. I'm sad about that. But I won't retire.
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People say it gets better but it doesn't. It just gets different, that's all.
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When you get into the granny era, you're lucky to get anything.
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I said 'It can't go on' and he said 'No, it can't.' Honestly, I don't think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him.
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Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
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I had been feeling a little rum. I didn't think it was anything serious because years ago I felt a lump and it was benign. I assumed this would be too. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails, and I don't know what the future holds, if anything.
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I don't think films about elderly people have been made very much.
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I have many good friends, but I tend to keep to myself anyway. It's odd, doing things and having no one to share them with.
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Listen, I must be 110 by now. Granny is going to kick the bucket at some point.
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There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that.
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The thing is, often press people ask questions that are so personal that even your nearest and dearest wouldn't ask them.
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My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.
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There's a difference between solitude and loneliness.