A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

There's many a good tune played by an old banjo.

The knighthood was a tremendous honour, I don't dismiss it. But I feel embarrassed by the flowery, theatrical stuff that goes with being an actor.

In the theatre, people talk. Talk, talk until the cows come home about journeys of discovery and about what Hazlitt thought of a line of Shakespeare. I can't stand it.

I've got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I've done it.

People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life.

I don't have many friends; I'm very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated and I've never been really close to anyone.