Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. You'll be afraid you can't achieve it. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.

You think you're an artist; prove it

[on whether he harbored any resentment at his forced retirement from the stage after he was fired by Britain's National Theater] I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare... An actor must act.

Without acting, I cannot breathe.

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.

Don't be afraid to be outrageous; the critics will shoot you down anyway.

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.