I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.
I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.
I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.
The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.
I can't think I've ever loved anybody quite as much... My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world.
I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.
I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.
The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.
'Richard III' is a really difficult play to film - it's involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I've ever done before.
Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.
