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.

You must always steal, but only from the best people. Steal any trick that looks worthwhile. If you see Vivien Leigh or Robert DeNiro or Meryl Streep do something stunningly effective, and you can analyze how he or she did it, then pinch it. Because you can be sure that they stole it in the first place.

Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.

You get paid the same for a bad film as you do for a good one.

If I work with a bad actor, my reaction is to immediately become worse than they are.

But the whole point of the Sixties was that you had to take people as they were. If you came in with us you left your class, and colour, and religion behind, that was what the Sixties was all about.

I am often asked which of my films has come closest to my own ideal of performance, and I always answer, 'Educating Rita.'