“I’ve always loved reprehensible people because they’re so much more interesting to play on screen.”

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 would love to do anything from a really gritty, interesting, indie type film, to that commercial, bigger stuff.

It’s been an interesting life. I feel like I’m 40 years old at the age of 16.

If you’re an honest person, you’ll make mistakes, but it’ll be okay. The most interesting things happen after making mistakes.

Enjoy your time in public service. It may well be one of the most interesting and challenging times of your life.

I just know what I go through, and I know how to speak on it in an interesting way.

The causes of events are ever more interesting than the events themselves.

She had just enough madness to make her interesting.

Every birth has its significant lifetime miracles. We are supposed to forget all but we are also supposed to remember again. The veil of oblivion exists to make it more interesting to discover ourselves again.