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

There was a certain moment. I was about 61 - two, three or four, and I got a script. And I sent it back to the producer saying - "I don't wanna do it. The part's too small." And he sent it back to me, he said, "You shouldn't read the lover. You should read the father.

I'm a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I'll go on for 20 minutes.

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?'

When I was 6 my father went to fight in the war, so he was my big hero. I thought he was the greatest thing.

The three actors I admire the most are all dead. Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and the French actor, Jean Gabin. They're all very natural, sort of masculine without being overly macho.

I come from the slums; I come from a hard background; I come from a poor family; and I was a soldier.