I began to think that the finest modern writer was the screen actor. This was in the spirit of the Fifties where a very antiliterary literature was emerging - Kenneth Patchen and others. I kind of believed what Nietzsche said, that nothing not written in your blood is worth reading; it's just more pollution of the airwaves.

Many actors will try something different once, but if it isn't a box office success they'll never do it again. In my opinion, there's no point in going on with this job if you do the same thing over and over again.

When you look at life retrospectively you rarely regret anything that you did, but you might regret things that you didn't do.

Having kids is the most innately positive thing that anyone can do.

When I come up against a director who has a concept that I don't agree with, or maybe I just haven't thought of it or whatever, I'd be more prone to go with them than my own because I want to be out of control as an actor, I want them to have the control, otherwise it's going to become predictably my work, and that's not fun.

Once you've been really bad in a movie, there's a certain kind of fearlessness you develop.

There was a period when I just wanted to make what I wanted to make and I didn't care what lie I had to tell.