There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk.

There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it's there it's stunning, and there is nothing to match that.

I know there is something out there, and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad. But I'm not like Shirley MacLaine, who probably believes we were past lovers in another life.

I believe that I am past my prime. I had reckoned on my prime lasting till I was at least fifty.

My career is chequered. Then I think I got pigeon-holed in humour; Shakespeare is not my thing.