So I went to George and told him I had the opportunity to become the figurehead of a government safety campaign, and he agreed to give me the week off and reschedule shooting!

Training has been such a huge part of my life and career I hope to keep going with it.

The attraction, and my particular participation is in being able to communicate with my fans, answer their questions, get a feel for how they respond to Vader.

I'd worked in Clockwork Orange with Stanley Kubrick and since Stanley was such a prestigious director this opened all sorts of doors for me - one of them being Star Wars.

The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.

I think if you think of our lives as musicians, it's craftsmanship. We're not artists, we're more artisans. You know, I don't think we view ourselves as musical geniuses who can just make some sort of wonderfully beautiful record out of nothing. It's something that we work at. And if we keep working, hopefully we'll keep improving.

George Lucas was casting about and had heard favourable things about my work in Clockwork Orange and asked me to come in, which of course I did even though no one knew what the film was about!