The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

I love the start of autumn when the trees in my garden change the colour of their leaves in one last dazzling display.

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

I'm hoping there's an afterlife. As you get older, you hope even more fervently.

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I'm my own most vicious critic. So I'm always trying to do it better.

Be patient.Of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar.

I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.