“The biggest surprise in a man’s life is old age.”

I have a rather naive approach, I think, to my job.

If you are a libertine, if you’re not given to long-term faithful relationships, you tend to project your behavior onto everyone else. It’s like the person who knows they’re not trustworthy; they tend to mistrust everyone else.

If your best friend has stolen your girlfriend, it does become life and death.

I didn’t go to drama school because, from the first refusal I then, as I said, a couple of weeks later, was offered a professional job, where I am immensely grateful to the journey.

When Attenborough asked me to do Gandhi it was almost like stepping off one boat and stepping on to another, even though both boats are going at 60 miles per hour.

There’s so much crap talked about acting.

I think that most actors, and they’re a very strange lot actors, very strange people, but I think that they attempt to keep in touch with the child.

There is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.

I think I’m more bonded, emotionally and in a craft sense, to films that tell extraordinary stories about extraordinary destinies.

Family is family over the internet, over Skype, over the telephone. Love is love. You don’t have to actually go through some ritual to prove that you love somebody.

The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!

As an actor there’s no autonomy, unless you’re prepared to risk the possibility of starving.

I try and reduce myself to an almost blank slate and hope to God that I am creative.

You need particular note or rhythm in the symphony to be that minor key, or that sharp key or major chord. In musical terms, I try to hit the right note. But not alter the score of the music, just emphasize the note correctly.

I’m so dependent on reacting to the other actors on the set, and to the director. I’m very responsive. I react. And I treasure the energy that reaction gives.

Filming is so much to do with rhythm, as is music, and if it isn’t there then you know in the end nobody can save it really, they can’t.

The best anti-aging product is a great, natural-looking hair color, especially when youre graying.

Like a lot of fellows around here, I have a furniture problem. My chest has fallen into my drawers.

I figure I’m still good for painting until 95 or thereabouts.

A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the oneself that there is no self left to die.

I am not afraid of aging, but more afraid of people’s reactions to my aging.

Aging has a wonderful beauty and we should have respect for that.

They start their beauty routine at a young age, which is the key to aging beautifully.