You got paid on Friday, go for a late-night poker game, and have no money on Saturday. But the RSC took your rent out of the paycheck, so at least you had a place to sleep.

I've often thought I'm a short music hall comedian stuck in a leading man's body.

The sense of popularity in an actor is essential.

Some of the finest Shakespeare has been done recently by college theater programs. I'll tell you what these young kids have: They have a natural authority in Shakespeare. They feel a right to do it. And once they honor the humanity of it, the rhythm of the verse comes with it.

The Elizabethan mind wanted and demanded that one word could mean 50 things. What Shakespeare offers us is not ambiguity; it's choices.

The hard thing is making sure you work with wonderful people and that you get something out of it so that you can get better as an actor.

Television is an important part of how we communicate.

Mostly, theater becomes blander and blander as everyone wants the same thing they saw before. The good plays are the ones that don't allow you to do that.

The loser, the fool, is embraced in England because there is a recognition of silliness there that allows a person to keep his ambitions and desires at a certain distance. Just being in the race is enough.

I love to argue and share bright ideas in a rehearsal room, and when you live with somebody who is working on the same show, the delight can go on all evening!

After I left the R.S.C., I did a musical, 'Masquerade,' where I played a rabbit. I was the lead.

I do one thing Gielgud didn't: I play the ukulele.

Rattigan's world demanded unwavering trust in principles, loyalty, and virtue. At the time of this play - Rattigan was writing this play in 1947 about an incident that took place in 1914 - should a boy say he didn't do something, his father would believe him; a British father would take the defense of his son's honor to his grave.

I thought acting was just going on and remembering all of one's lines.

If Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be doing sitcoms.

My first acquaintance with 'Peter Pan' was back when I lived in South London. I was at art school, and I needed to earn money, so I got a job as a stagehand at the Wimbledon Theatre, and 'Peter Pan' was on tour there with Donald Sinden, who was playing Captain Hook.

My neighborhood in South London was very Dickensian.

I've always thought like I'm really a 3-feet-high comic trapped in a leading man's body... but then I played Nicholas Nickleby, and suddenly I was heroic.

I was at a pretty rough school, and the only thing I was good at was art.

If you take away a lot of the pretension and grandness from Shakespeare, a true poeticism is revealed.

They said my voice was terrible, nervous, and spotty and that I must go away and learn how to use it properly. I must admit I was rather agape, since I had never thought about making my voice better.

I was a skinny 17-year-old.

I love to see people blossom.

That's been the tragedy of my life, actually. I've always looked younger than I am.

You might be the best Hamlet of your generation in the bathroom, but unfortunately, you have to come out and do it on stage, and it's best to do it to people who would fill the house.

Arthur Winslow is one of the great parts.

The shields were enormous. In 'Julius Caesar,' I died early in the scene and used to fall asleep under the shield until I was woken up by applause.

I like to do really good things. But 'good' - witness Charles Dickens - doesn't mean 'not popular.'

I like working with authors who are a bit pesky.

There's something very fine and lucid and rich in this tradition of the English actor.

I wish I'd played Coriolanus.

Anything I do is as theatrical as I can get it.

Nothing in the world in perfect. Even a still photograph.

No lens is quick enough to track the movement of the human body. The molecules are always moving.

I don't think perfection is possible. I think you can attempt to reach perfection, but I don't think it's a possible thing. I think perfection is a moving point, and we spend our artistic lives chasing it.

Rattigan wrote some very good plays.

Well-written plays deserve to be learned from and understood properly, both by actors and audiences alike, and Rattigan's very human characters help us do that.

I was 36 when I played Nicholas Nickleby.

I am an anthologist, you see. I sort of make anthologies for people.

I was an art student when I was a boy, and as an art student you don't have to talk to anyone - you just have to paint really wonderful paintings. It's very unlike being an actor, where you have to talk all the time.

I joined the Royal Shakespeare Co. with no experience whatsoever - I'd never been to a drama school or anything. But I was strong and could lift things, I could move scenery about.

Sometimes I think I'll go off and be a milkman or a greengrocer, some easy job.

Even Shakespeare gives you a scene off.

I just do what I'm asked, really.

I think like an actor when I'm acting, and I think like a director when I'm directing.

All this thing that L.A. doesn't have any love for the theater isn't true.

Exercising choice is a good thing.

Now, when I talk about Shakespeare, I can't talk too much about Gielgud or Olivier. Because nobody knows who I'm talking about.

I've been with Shakespeare all my life.

I'm astonished to say, but people are really pleased to hear what happened to me, the way I got a little bit more confident, the people I've met, and the things I didn't know.