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

Without acting, I cannot breathe.

Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.

I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.

My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.

I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.

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.