It's fashionable for modern actors to talk about getting 'inside' a character. But you can't get to the inside without getting the outside right first.

The big studio era is from the coming of sound until 1950, until I came in ... I came in at a crux in film, which was the end of the studio era and the rise of filmmaking.

In terms of pure physical effort, today was probably as hard as I've worked in any part. I spent the morning rowing, including the change of speeds Arrius [the Roman commander] test Judah with. A real bone-breaker.

Sometimes, to be silent is to be most eloquent.

I'm neither giving up nor giving in.

You simply disobey. Peaceably, yes. Respectfully, of course. Nonviolently, absolutely. But when told how to think or what to say or how to behave, we don't. We disobey the social protocol that stifles and stigmatizes personal freedom.

The prime motivation in making almost any film is success, because film is the art form of the 20th century.