I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

I came here in 1974 to do a play, and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.

[on former US President Bill Clinton] It seems to me that the country rather misses him. He has impressed me. He asked me if I wanted to accompany him on a trip to Brazil, and so off I went. I`d met the President before in Washington, a very nice guy. So we were at this dinner, talking after his gig, he gave this incredible speech and he said, "Would you like to come to Brazil with me next week?". Of course I said, "Yes". He`s pretty exhausting to be with, because he`s always wanting to play cards or golf.

I love roller coasters. I don`t get a chance often, but I`ve gone to Magic Mountain and gone on the rides. I love roller coasters.

I`m always cast in these strange men... that`s not me, really.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

I don`t know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker.

[On his most famous character, Dr. Hannibal Lecter] I think he might be a very interesting person to have lunch with, provided that YOU weren`t the lunch.

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn`t bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn`t have any brains. I didn`t know what I was doing there. That`s why I became an actor.

Well, everyone likes movies when they`re a little kid.

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I`d follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I`ve been very lucky.

I know that the arts are important. I`m not denying that, but I can`t associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

I don`t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don`t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don`t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don`t think you need all that stuff.

I worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.

[on Gary Oldman] He is just like I was at his age.

I`ve got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I`ve done it.

[On becoming a U.S. citizen in 2000] America has been very generous to me, magnanimous really. I thought it would be good to give something back. It was a decision of the heart.

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

[December 1998] To hell with this stupid show business, this ridiculous showbiz, this futile waste of life. I look back and see a desert wasteland. All those years spent in a fake environment. Everything was a fake.

I love life because what more is there.

I`m the slowest driver in the world.

And I love a scary movie. It makes your toes curl and it`s not you going through it.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It`s a death trap.

Oh yes. I`m an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.

I would like to go back to Wales. I`m obsessed with my childhood and at least three times a week dream I am back there.

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he`s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he`s a terrific actor.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

One of the people I got to know years ago, which was a great privilege, was Laurence Olivier. He was like a laser - that was his power. And the only actor I`ve met since who had that same quality of laser-like determination is Russell Crowe. The first day I started working with him, I thought, "That guy`s got it." The best way to describe Russell is, he`s like a shark circling round. He was argumentative. He argued with the director all the time. I don`t know Russell that well, but I admire him, and you know, whatever he`s got to do really. I really like him because he`s ballsy, he`s got guts, he`s macho and all the rest of it. He`s going through his bad boy period, but he`s basically a nice guy.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

[on his days as an alcoholic, when he was drinking Mexican Spirit tequila] I was really sort of on a prolonged acid trip. I saw things and had peculiar quasi-religious experiences. I thought I was John The Baptist, and I would talk to the sea at Malibu and the sea would talk back to me. It was weird.

I`ve got a great sense of humor.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down, drink a glass of vodka and smoke a cigarette.

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart - they were wonderful actors. They didn`t act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful.

The Welsh people have a talent for acting that one does not find in the English. The English lack heart.

I`m most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page... sunrise over the desert and masses of... a whole essay before you get to the dialogue.

I never make conscious decisions.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

This industry has been really good to me. It`s been a great life. I`m not through yet. I`m ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

Being a smoker is like being trapped in a complicated maze. It`s as if Allen Carr has a plan of the maze. Instantly I was freed from my addiction.

I like the good life too much, I`m not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.

Acting is still enjoyable, but there are no more challenges any more for me. No, none at all. I`m much more interested in painting and composing music these days. I`ve become what I always wanted to be, a jobbing actor. I`m just detached, I do my thing. I work hard at it, but I don`t invest my life in it. As long as they pay me on time and I get a good script with a good director, I have fun. That`s all.

[Interviewed on "Inside the Actors Studio" (1994)] I once asked a Jesuit priest what was the best short prayer he knew. He said, "Fuck it,` as in, "Fuck it; it`s in God`s hands."