I spent 30 years of my life not being wanted at all for films.

I sit waiting for things that I can't refuse.

I had been in that part of the world as a soldier in Korea, so I had been interested in Vietnam.

I feel that I helped the working class by just saying there are no barriers, which I consider to be true.

I don't like getting up early in the morning and learning all that stuff. I work with offers that I can't refuse.

I'm very much more choosy now. I do stuff that I really, really, really like.

I've been on movies where I literally couldn't hear what the other actor was saying. It's very awkward.

I've done my job and I've got the picture out there, and I'm very happy with it.

You don't make any money when you're my age. The stars get it all. That's a lie, actually.

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

You can write shorthand and still look at the guy you're talking to.

We can only use British actors because everybody's got to talk exactly the same.

The Quiet American is anti the people who took them into the Vietnam War.

Sometimes, in a part, everything comes together.

Nobody did a campaign for me. I was nominated out of the blue and won out of the blue. So that was it.

My dialogue coach said to do a Texas accent, you lean on the next word, and that was the clue to me.

If you held a pistol at my head, I couldn't tell you who they're going to vote for Best Actor.

If I work with a bad actor, my reaction is to immediately become worse than they are.

I don't have to work. I suppose I should retire. But I enjoy working.

I don't meet stockbrokers or carpenters or coal miners; I spend all day with actors, composers and photographers.

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

I don't do it often, but I do cry. I also laugh a lot; people tell me I'm funny and I do like to laugh.

I'm a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I'll go on for 20 minutes.

By the time the Oscars are on I'll be seventy. How many more chances am I going to have to get nominated for an Oscar?

I didn't know what I knew. I wasn't aware of what I knew.

I can never be the hero now. You have to be young and all that stuff. I used to be the hero.

For Cider House Rules, I was doing a New England accent.

God willing, even I might scrape a nomination.

Ive read an awful lot of books, Ive read alot of awful books

You're never too old to be crazy.

This is your life, Larry. Learn to enjoy what you've got.

As an actor, I'll play anything.

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

I don't work very much, and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.

I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.

No matter what the reason, if you start to scream and shout, you look a fool, and you feel a fool, and you earn the disrespect of everyone.

Comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write.

I'm a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

I'm the audience's representative on earth.

There's quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.

Obsession is a young man’s game.

I love the start of autumn when the trees in my garden change the colour of their leaves in one last dazzling display.

If you're blond, as I am, and you have blond lashes, you have to wear mascara, otherwise you're invisible on stage.

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.

Not only is acting more than a part-time job, it's more than a full-time job. It's a full-time obsession.

My career is going better now than when I was younger. Now I get the part. Back then, I'd get the girl.

Just because I have made a point of never losing my accent it doesn't mean I'm an eel-and-pie yob.