There are loads of black actors.You can't say: I'm going to vote for him, he's not very good but he's black, [so] I'll vote for him. You've got to give a good performance.

There is no point in competing with young talent...I just concentrate on getting better each day.

I just work in order to improve myself as an actor which is what I've always done.

What it is is that comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write. Anyone can write, and then you leave it to special effects to make it look good. But comedy, you've got to do some writing.

I'm not in the Lifetime Achievement area yet-I'm still battling it out in the trenches.

If you're a movie star, you get the girl, you lose the girl, and then you get her back. But if you're a character like me, you lose the girl, then you get another one, then you get another one, then you lose them all, then you lose your life.

I don't want to be an English actor doing the greatest American accent you've ever heard. I want to be an American doing nothing.