I'm a professional and I'll do anything - a poetry reading, television, cinema, anything that allows me to act.

Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.

It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.

Films were never in my budget. Didn't occur to me till much later. I hoped for a long, good life, which I've had and I'm having as an actor. I didn't expect the rest.

I don't go for this auto-cannibalism. Very damaging.

When my father would come home from the track after a good day, the whole room would light up; it was fairyland. But when he lost, it was black. In our house, it was always either a wake ... or a wedding.

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