“I’ve never been out with a married woman, never. I respect others’ properties.”

I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.

I never look back at all. All of my sentiment and emotion goes into my family. I’m an extremely family oriented person and I have a very, very happy family life. That doesn’t just include blood relations. I have friends who are close to me.

I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don’t want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I’m my own most vicious critic. So I’m always trying to do it better.

It’s a lesson in life – don’t look back, you’ll trip over.

My father was a fish market porter. So I grew up on fish, because he used to steal one a day, I grew up on the very best fish that money could buy, ’cause he only stole the good stuff.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can’t deal with a woman of their own age.

It’s much harder to act in a bad film than in a good one. A terrible script makes for very difficult acting. You can win an Academy Award for some of the easiest acting in your career, made possible by a brilliant script.

Use the difficulties – if you can’t avoid them

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

When you reach the top, that’s when the climb begins.

I don’t have any regrets because I’m very optimistic, and live each day as though it’s the last.

It’s vital to have your own space so you aren’t constantly in each other’s pockets.

I’m every bourgeois nightmare – a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I’m pig-headed.

You start pretending to have fun, you might have a little by accident.

I’ve always fantasized about wedding gowns. And it’s not because of marriage.

I was like, I don’t know if I can hold that promise [to wait until marriage to have sex] because this guy at camp is really cute. Sex wasn’t talked about in my home, but I was a very curious young girl.

It’s not easy having a good marriage – but I don’t want easy. Easy doesn’t make you grow. Easy doesn’t make you think. I thank God every day that I am married to a man who makes me think. That’s my definition of true love.

I’m anal-retentive. I’m a workaholic. I have insomnia. And I’m a control freak. That’s why I’m not married. Who could stand me?

Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing.

He who marries a beautiful woman in hopes of being happy with her knows not but that even she herself may be the cause of all his uneasinesses.

I have made up my mind that I must have money, Pa. I feel that I can’t beg it, borrow it, or steal it; and so I have resolved that I must marry it.

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.