Ian Mckellen

I quite like it when I'm on the Tube and people offer me their seat. Sometimes I take it. The other day I was offered a seat by a pregnant lady. I thought, 'That's going a bit far.'

I like sleeping a lot.

If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star.

I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.

I'm not being offered a constant stream of wonderful parts with wonderful directors that would keep me away from the theatre. When they turn up, I do them.

Actors don't, in fact, retire, do they? It took me a while to remember that.

Fame creeps up on you.

When I went to lobby Nelson Mandela while the post-apartheid constitution was being drafted, I asked him to endorse making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of sexuality. I'd been warned that he might giggle if I mentioned homosexuality.

When I came out, I told my stepmother Gladys, and she just said she had known for years and was glad I wasn't lying anymore.

Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it.

I know actors who have had to turn down good roles because they just don't pay enough. It's hard.

There are some fantastic parts for older actors.