- Unless you can surround yourself with as many beautiful things as you can afford, I don't think life has very much meaning.
- I'm bored with questions about acting.
- [on working with Dame Julie Andrews] Working with her is like being hit over the head with a Valentine's card.
- [on Franchot Tone, who starred onstage with him in "The Petrified Forest"] His sense of humor, as one might guess, was seemingly self-deprecating, drawn always from this inexplicable inner torment. These vulnerable qualities were to make his Chekovian performances ("Uncle Vanya" and "A Moon for the Misbegotten"), both of whom I later saw, so memorable - a rare combination of lightness and poignancy... I saw in him someone I could perhaps one day aspire to; not the hidden sad, pained man that was part of Franchot but the part he couldn't conceal, no matter how hard he tried, the part that was refined, noble and infinitely kind.
- [on working with Michael Langham] Hamlet can sound self-pitying. He's always whining, something being rotten in Denmark and the world so awful. To get over that, Michael suggested that because Hamlet himself had a large intellect, that he turned those complaining moments into a kind of wonderment and would analyze everything as a fresh discovery. It was a superb way of getting rid of the danger of self-pity, and an astounding piece of direction because it was valuable throughout the play.
- [on working with Michael Langham] When I did "Henry V", he changed my life. Really owe my career to Michael.
- [on being asked whether he had made his peace with his most famous film The Sound of Music (1965)] Oh, God no.
- [on the enduring appeal of The Sound of Music (1965)] Yeah, it drives me nuts. It has nothing to do with the movie, it's just a relentless pursuing of this film that goes on and on and I've gone on and on, far above and beyond it and then to be reminded of it, God almighty what is the matter with people?
- Too many people in the world are unhappy with their lot. And then they retire and they become vegetables. I think retirement in any profession is death, so I'm determined to keep crackin'.
- [2011, a revised opinion on The Sound of Music (1965)] People were unnaturally sentimental about the film. So I always gave it a tough time. But a few years ago, I went to an Easter party and had to watch the damn thing with these kids. I was a prisoner! And then I thought, it's got everything - the lovely songs, the Nazis and the nuns and the kids. It's timeless and I'm grateful for it.
- [on receiving a Screen Actors Guild award for Beginners (2010)] I just can't tell you what fun I've had being a member of the world's second oldest profession. When they honor you, it's like being lit by the holy grail.
- [on the ability to convey a sense of pathos] Very few people have it naturally - Chaplin, Brando. It's a gift. But you can learn how to fake it.
- Ewan (McGregor) doesn't act, he inhabits a role. And, of course, he makes you not act and inhabit the role, like it's a competition. I owe that to him.
- As T.S. Eliot measures his life with coffee spoons, so I measure mine by the plays I've been in. I'm too vague to measure any other way.
- The theatre is not for sissies. It separates the men from the boys.
- [a portion of his Oscar acceptance speech for Beginners (2010)] I would happily share this award with [Ewan McGregor] if I had any decency but I don't.
- [to his Oscar statuette at the 2012 Academy Awards] You're only two years older than me, darling. Where have you been all my life?
- [on cell-phones ringing during a live performance] The only thing to do is to say something like "I'll get it." The audience gives you applause because they hate it too.
- I think many of today's politicians take a typical CEO mentality when it comes to the arts. It's anathema to them. It's the last thing they think of when it comes to funding; it's way down at the bottom of the list. That is unconscionable. It's so stupid and narrow-minded. They don't realize. It's all about political manoeuvring.
- Television is certainly more skilfully handled [now] than it was then. There are certain things, like Sherlock (2010), which is enchanting and perfectly right for a younger audience. And the truly wonderful thing about it is that it is not disloyal to the original. There's a Conan Doyle feeling about it - something that Doyle would have written for this age. Benedict [Cumberbatch] is a superb actor. I love his beats. Those are rare things that happen marvelously in this medium.
- [on Mike Wallace and his impact on public affairs programming] He had a lot to do with making it dangerous. He understood media. He understood how you could break down a person in front of a camera. It's a cruel medium. You have to deal with it skillfully. He was not a horrid man. I met him. He was very likable and very bright. But he knew it was a cruel medium and that it was an instant medium. It's now; it's in the moment. You can't rehearse it; you can't be glib. That's really what television is about. It's about what's happening in the streets, all the awful wars, all the awful things that are happening.
- The writing was superior [in the '50s]. But then we had all the best writers, Horton Foote and others, writing for this brash new medium. It was as exciting as hell. It was an adventure. Television has become a little glossy. A little too comfortable.
- I was much a part of live television in the '50s. There was something terribly honest about live television and terribly dangerous and terribly risky. You were bound to learn your lines without bumping into each other, which we did a lot of.
- [observation, 2014] I'm thrilled to be around still, and I don't want to blow my horn, but I've done so many more parts than Barrymore ever got a chance to do. That Barrymore wasn't able - or willing to show his true range is one of the great missed opportunities of the theatrical stage. A terrible waste.
- [on turning down the role of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy] I don't know why I turned it down. I think it had to do with spending four years in New Zealand. There's other countries I want to visit before I croak. But Ian McKellen got the role and he was fantastic in it. He played the role really warm and kind and I hate the son-of-a-bitch!
- [on undertaking the rushed refilling of a major character in All the Money in the World (2017)] I was just hopeful that at my age my memory would serve me. Because I had to learn my lines very quickly and I thought, "Oh, Christ, am I going to be able to hang on to this?" But that's because of years in the theatre. You're trained to be in an emergency like that. The whole theatrical experience is an emergency.
- Somebody said, "Are you going to the Tonys?" I said no because the Tonys are a funny thing now. It's all musicals, and not particularly terrific musicals. Some are, some not. But that's it. What's happened to the legitimate theatre, the writing? Where's all that now? I'm not interested anymore. It's because English is not the first language. We're now playing to a huge foreign audience.
- [on the effect of digital effects-heavy film blockbusters on acting] This whole new wave of young studs who look great against the green screen, they're at the mercy of all of that. It's at the mercy of phoney crocodiles and dragons. Technically it's simply wonderful, what goes on now.
- My type of roles [early on were] sort of uptight, urbane, sophisticated young men ... sort of boring and dull. People don't have any imagination in this business, do they? I can do comedy. I can do all sorts of things. Why are they giving me this uptight crap? So I was so happy when I arrived at a certain age and I could become a character actor and be free of all that nonsense.
- [on losing the leading role of King Henry II in Becket (1964) to Peter O'Toole] I wished I'd done that film. I adored Peter; he was a friend. But I could have killed him, the son-of-a-bitch, for taking the part.
- [When asked why he prefers playing evil characters] The devil is more interesting than God.
- [on Starcrash (1978)] Give me Rome any day. I'll do porno in Rome, as long as I can get to Rome. Getting to Rome was the greatest thing that happened in that for me.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content