Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.

I'm rather bored by the subject - meaning me. It's a sort of a yoke, but at times you know, a yoke is a kind of comfort. And it's always there.

Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.

[May 1958, on playing Macbeth at age 30 and age 48] When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

Above all, you must remain open and fresh and alive to any new idea.

If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.