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.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

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

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

My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch, except that we get this sort of catharsis every six months or so, and we go and be absolutely someone else.