If you're a gardener you don't need a gym. [...] You're always carrying large sacks of manure all over.

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

I spent 30 years of my life not being wanted at all for films.

To be a movie star, you have to invent yourself.

My mum never understood how much I earned. When I told her I earned a million pounds a film, she said, 'How much is that?'

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

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.