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

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

You’ve got to be flexible. Directors do a massive amount of planning and homework, and if after all that your director decides to throw it all out of the window and shoot spontaneously, then you must follow his lead.

Some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

I never bring a role home with me. The moment they say, ‘It’s a wrap,’ it’s gone completely. I’m a totally ruthless professional, and life is my family, not my work.

In film, other actors’ performances really are not your concern. If the other actor isn’t giving you what you want, act as though he were.

I never regret anything. I always said that when I’m old, I want to be sitting there regretting the things that I did and not the things that I didn’t do; and now I’m old, and I don’t regret anything! I had fun. I had fun, and I’m still having it.

Hollywood is a cross between a health farm, a recreation center and an insane asylum. It’s a company town, and I happen to like the company!

A lot of people said, Who do you think you are? I told them I know exactly who I am and I’ll tell you exactly where I’m going.

I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

Great acting is about listening to what they are saying not waiting to deliver your lines.

That to me is what my idea of film acting should be. There shouldn’t be any acting. You should just be watching a real person.

People say to me, why did you do those films, and I say, for money. It wasn’t for diamond rings or kidney shaped swimming pools in Beverly Hills, it was in order to improve the lot of everyone around me.

You can’t get blase about something you haven’t done yet.

When it comes to politics, I believe you have to cut the cake so that everybody gets a piece, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that somebody has to make the cake.

English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.

Always remember the lesson your mistakes taught you.

You were the hardest lesson I ever had to learn.

The best lesson you can receive is knowing when to let go.

Don’t destroy your future by trying to teach people a lesson that the Universe is already going to give to them.

I appreciate all the ups and downs and all the lessons I’ve learned. We have had such a legendary run but somehow it’s still just the start.

Some people are just passing through to teach you lessons in life. When you fully trust someone without any doubt, you finally get one of two results: A person for life or A lesson for life.

I’ve always been involved in music. Whether it be taking piano lessons or something, I always have.

The most important thing my father taught me is that every man has to stand up for his rights.