“Sometimes it’s right to do the wrong things and right now is one of those times.”

I’ve met quite a number of people in my career, but I do have an extraordinary memory. And even though they may drift into the periphery of my memory, I can bring them right back when I need them.

I’ve never had to turn my hand to anything for monetary gain, other than pretending to be somebody else. I’m deeply fortunate.

But filming is good for you, because the crew isn’t allowed to laugh. You can’t get addicted to getting the laugh.

But comedy I’d love to do as much as humanly possible.

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.

Error sometimes supplies the surprise that makes life interesting.

Sometimes the mistake I see people make is thinking that they’re always going to be up, and I think that’s impossible for anyone.

Often my creative life has seemed like a long tunnel, dark and damp. And sometimes I wondered whether I could live through it. But I did!

People say love can be developed, but in the end, the only person you love is yourself. That’s why you choose to love someone who can please you the most.

Sometimes we misjudge what is possible and what is not.

They should be unchanging in shape and proportions. But sometimes they do change depending on who’s in them.

How do I think of you? As someone I want to be with. As someone as young as me, but “older,” if that makes sense. As someone I like to look at, not just because you’re good to look at, but because just looking at you makes me smile and feel happier.

He thought: How difficult it is to explain yourself to yourself. Sometimes there only is, and no knowing.