I give myself to my parts as to a lover.

We will always want films ... that basically are centred on young people, because young people is the way we live on, we older people, insofar as we live on.

A theater is being given over to market forces, which means that a whole generation that should be able to do theater as well as see it is being completely deprived

On one occasion, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons and myself were due to appear at the Sarajevo film festival and were turned off a UN plane on orders from Geneva. We had to get local journalists to transport the films in for us. I tell you this only to demonstrate that festivals can be a lifeline. But, after all the difficulties I'd had in getting there, in 1996 I found myself being flown in on a four-seater RAF plane as an official guest, endorsed by the British Embassy. Ironically, the film I was to present was Mission: Impossible.

The arts stop society going rotten and mad.

I give myself to my parts as to a lover.

When somebody can't reveal what they're after - whether by word or by how the camera is set up, lighting, etcetera - it's like an electronic beep beep; it interferes very much with what we actors can do. And, after all, the director wants the actors to be bringing forth the best that they can, according to whatever vision he has.