“Frankly, I got into the movies because I like the movies a lot.”

If you get an impulse in a scene, no matter how wrong it seems, follow the impulse. It might be something and if it ain’t – take two!

I would never complain about my life, even though I really would like to have a mate.

I used to think that one of the great signs of security was the ability to just walk away.

A star on a movie set is like a time bomb. That bomb has got to be defused so people can approach it without fear.

In other words, I wouldn’t like to be an actor if I could only be real. I like to get wild, behaviourally wild, and it’s crazy to think of any form where it’s just one way.

Just let the wardrobe do the acting.

Age is the first limitation on roles that I’ve ever had to encounter, and I hit that a while ago.

If men are honest, everything they do and everywhere they go is for a chance to see women.

There were points in my life where I felt oddly irresistible to women. I’m not in that state now and that makes me sad.

We are going as fast as we can as soon as we can. We’re in a race against time, until we run out of money.

Don’t ever give anybody your best advice, because they’re not going to follow it.

I can’t hit on women in public any more. I didn’t decide this; it just doesn’t feel right at my age.

The average celebrity meets, in one year, ten times the amount of people that the average person meets in his entire life.

My motto is more good times.

With my sunglasses on, I’m Jack Nicholson. Without them, I’m fat and 60.

It’s a slight stretch of the imagination but most people are alike in most ways so I’ve never had any trouble identifying with the character that I’m playing.

As an actor, my attitude towards using of film versus digital is, if you have film, filmmakers have to cut eventually so you don’t have to learn all that dialogue. With digital, they can just go on forever and it’s a nightmare. So, I like film – nice short takes.

Art is something to be proud of. Art is no compromise. As an actor, you’re giving it up, you’re at the mercy of so many other people.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you’re really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour.

Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.

Being misunderstood is not a bad thing as an actor. I know the truth.

From a very early age, I made my decisions based on careers that I admire. The one thing that all the actresses I love have in common is that they have diversity in their careers.

Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.