Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them.

Lust, that state commonly known as 'being in love,' is a kind of madness. It is a distortion of reality so remarkable that it should, by rights, enable most of us to understand the other forms of lunacy with the sympathy of fellow-sufferers. But, paradoxically, mad and suffering as one is, and the heat of the flame, few of us are glad as we feel that passion slip away No, while most people have been at their unhappiest when in love, it is nevertheless the state the human being yearns for above all.

Sometimes the weekend gets hijacked by work, but as my mother would say, this is the right problem.

What's difficult for American audiences is that they're used to a system here where you can get an actor for five years or even seven, and that is signed for at the audition. Whereas in England, no agent will give you an actor for more than three years.

Life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.

To me, all success is a delightful surprise, since one can absolutely never predict it.

A lot of actors find it impossible not to ask for the audience's sympathy. They have a need to twinkle.