I love acting, and I`m not going to determine what I do based on what I fear other people might think. I do what I want to do.

Well, 45-odd years of doing it, so we all pile up the things we like about directors and the things we don't like about directors. And sometimes they're very similar.

I love working, I'd be dead if I hadn't found myself as an actor I didn't have to be successful.

The Academy Awards are obscene, dirty . . . no better than a beauty contest.

Somehow I think it was declared very early on that I was the - if not the black sheep of the family, not a very good student.

Someone once said to me, 'Some of us choose to live with a lifeboat just a little bit out of our reach.' I'd like to reach a point where I no longer bullshit myself. I think that's the natural human condition - to lie to yourself. Because the truth is painful.

I wanted to find my limitations so I decided to do Shylock. And if I fail? I've never been afraid of that. I have other fears - doing bad work knowingly is the worst fear.