Acting is about giving something away, handing yourself over to whatever role you are asked to play. I`m not hiding or escaping or seeking anonymity. I reserve the right not to have a rubber stamp on my forehead saying this is who I am. Because who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

I was 7, and I remember being given a part in a play and thinking, This is exciting.

I don`t think it`s right that everybody knows everything about me.

All I want to see from an actor is the intensity and accuracy of their listening.

On film you put all your energies into a single glance.

On longtime partner Rima Horton: "I think every relationship should be allowed to have its own rules. She`s tolerant. She`s incredibly tolerant. Unbelievably tolerant. Possibly a candidate for sainthood."

I`ve never been able to plan my life. I just lurch from indecision to indecision.

I want to swim in both directions at once. Desire success, court failure.

Nothing gives me as much pleasure as travelling. I love getting on trains and boats and planes.

What is it about actors? God knows I get bored with actors talking about themselves.

If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there`s only one topic of conversation.

I have a love-hate relationship with white silk.

Who I am gets in the way of people looking innocently at the parts I play.

Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.

I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.

Talent is an accident of genes - and a responsibility.

You can lull the paying customers as long as they get slapped.

Each character I play has different dimensions. I`m not interested in words that pull them together.

If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work.

Los Angeles is not a town full of airheads. There`s a great deal of wonderful energy there.

What`s interesting about the process of acting is how often you don`t know what you`re doing.

If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.

My parents certainly didn`t have anything to do with the theater. I`m some kind of accident.

The audience should feel like voyeurs. Their response is absolutely crucial.

I`m a quite serious actor who doesn`t mind being ridiculously comic.

It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.

If you could build a house on a trampoline, that would suit me fine.

If you spend any time in Los Angeles, there`s only one topic of conversation.

Somebody with Debbie Reynolds` features doesn`t get cast as the Wicked Witch.

I love America because whenever I go home -- there`s something about England and coming from England-- but as soon as you walk down the steps of the plane you shrink. And you have to start saying "sorry" and being polite and curtsying and things like that... America just lets me be the klutz I really am.

One longs for a director with a sense of imagination.

There`s a voice inside you that tells you what you should do.

On not being a father: "I love to travel and I don`t have children, so there is a certain freedom."

I think there`s some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.

I do feel more myself in America. I can regress there, and they have roller-coaster parks.

My idea of a real treat is Magic Mountain without standing in line.

I think worrying things are going on in England - a real apathy.

When I get off the plane in England I always feel about two inches shorter.

Maverick is a word which appeals to me more than misfit. Maverick is active, misfit is passive.

Market forces impose certain rules before a film can actually get made.

I`m always aware of the camera and it feels like that`s the audience.