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

Exercising choice is a good thing.

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

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

I just do what I'm asked, really.

Even Shakespeare gives you a scene off.

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

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.

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

I was 36 when I played Nicholas Nickleby.

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.

Rattigan wrote some very good plays.

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.

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

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

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

I wish I'd played Coriolanus.

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

I like working with authors who are a bit pesky.

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

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.

Arthur Winslow is one of the great parts.

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.