I don't take a great deal of interest in party politics. Social politics interests me a great deal more.

I just don't like the whole Hollywood thing.

At times of the severest depression, humor is what binds people together.

Early days, I was a bit racked , particularly when I did Hitler, for CBS . That was hellish. That stayed with me for quite a long time.

In the late '70s, maybe just before I started, there was still an attitude that if you did film you didn't do TV and vice versa, but that's gone now.

Most of the time, you find that the smaller the budget, the more the project is about something substantive.

I have a reputation for being an improvisational actor, which is true, but I also know what I'm doing so that if the improvisational strand doesn't work I can go back to what I know's already there.