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.

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.

Alfie was the first time I was above the title; the first time I became a star in America.

The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.

The old guys like me started in the theatre. I was in the theatre for nine years.

You can't get blase about something you haven't done yet.