Work is life for me, it is the only point of life - and with it there is almost religious belief that service is everything.

The humility to prepare and the self-confidence to bring it off.

You think you're an artist; prove it

What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.

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

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

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.