I've directed a couple of times in the theater, but I wouldn't make a habit of it because it's too consuming.

Actors in general have become very spoiled in the roles they choose these days. When I first started in this profession - about a hundred years ago in the last century - it was all about taking risks, it was about doing the job and honing the craft.

The problem is that the U.K. in essence is a feudal society. It's everyone in their place.

Feudal societies don't create great cinema; we have great theatre. The egalitarian societies create great cinema. The Americans, the French. Because equality is sort of what the cinema deals with. It deals with stories which don't fall into 'Everybody in their place and who's who,' and all that. But the theatre's full of that.

If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

I think you have to experience life and then pull certain experiences into your act and your character's life, whoever you play, so you're full.

There is no greater privilege in living than bringing a tiny new human being into the world and then trying to raise him or her properly during the next eighteen years. Doing that job right requires all the intelligence, wisdom, and determination you will be able to muster from day to day.