You talk about auteur de cinema having things in their heads and putting them all across, can you imagine Shakespeare writing screenplays?

When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.

We all had such larks. Yes, it was hard work but the friendships and the genuine respect we had for one another, that side I shall miss greatly. I've stopped acting, but I don't think I've finished using my voice. I could, and probably will, record the whole of Shakespeare's sonnets. They live at the side of my bed and are my constant companions.

It's such a relief for me to sit in front of a tape recorder and not be using it to learn my lines.

I can make the best French toast.

If you cannot say what you mean, your majesty, you will never mean what you say and a gentleman should always mean what he says.

It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.