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

In spite of a heavy disguise, a few days' growth on my face, dark glasses, a beret and one of William's jackets that fitted me not at all, as I emerged from a hotel in Lecce, a young fisherman pointed me out to his friends and said "Lavrenche Olivaire." It was not all that amazing; if you're not known in Italy, you're not known anywhere.

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.

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

The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.

I have to act to live.

I am far from sure when I am acting and when I am not or, should I more frankly put it, when I am lying and when I am not. For what is acting but lying and what is good acting but convincing lying?