There are directors, and I think this is true of all directors, it would be true if I was a director - If the actor didn't want to do what I was suggesting, I would let him do it his way, and then I would say to him, "Just give me one where you do what the director wants", and that, of course, is the take that's used.

I headed out to have a breather at the stage door, dressed in my tramp costume. I had my bowler hat between my feet and there were passers-by, and one of them turned back and said, 'Do you need help, brother?' And $1 fell into my hat!

You can always pick out stage actors at the Oscars: they know how to walk.

When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.

When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing.

I often thought my gravestone would say, 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out,'

There's no sex in Middle Earth.