Actor

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

I just love to go home, no matter where I am, the most luxurious hotel suite in the world, I love to go home.

My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.

What a lot of people don't realize about gangs, in my opinion, is that a gang is not there to attack you. Eighty percent of the people in a gang are there to stop anyone from attacking them. You join a gang for protection, not to go out and hit someone.

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

The difference between a movie star and a movie actor is this - a movie star will say, 'How can I change the script to suit me?' and a movie actor will say. 'How can I change me to suit the script?'

I try to make everyone around me feel comfortable.

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.

I used to get the girl; now I get the part. In 'The Quiet American' you may have noticed I got the part and the girl. It's a milestone for me, because it's the last time I'm going to get the girl.

I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don't want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.

Every time you get a movie, you get a medical. So you know, you know you're alright for a couple of weeks.

I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.

I'm trying to work only with established, respected directors. I took a lot of bad scripts and worked for a lot of lazy directors, and it was discouraging to go to the screenings and see that the director had added nothing, the editor had added nothing, there was nothing to see.

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.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

I don't think you retire from movies; movies retire you.

One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.