Nobody did a campaign for me. I was nominated out of the blue and won out of the blue. So that was it.

I regard myself as someone who is retired but who occasionally goes out to work. In fact, I'm offered so much good stuff that it's not so occasional.

First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.

I never regret anything. I always said that when I'm old, I want to be sitting there regretting the things that I did and not the things that I didn't do; and now I'm old, and I don't regret anything! I had fun. I had fun, and I'm still having it.

Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.