I had a pretty hilariously gloomy few years in the '70s.

I was apprehensive about bringing off this Homer.

Acting is just being a man. Being human. Not forcing it.

The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.

No one ever watched competitive swimming.

I wouldn't mind being a lord.

People talk about the '60s, but they were merely a mass production of what the '50s had begun.

My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfillment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.

My plumbing is no one's business but my own.

I've stopped acting, but I don't think I've finished using my voice. I could, and probably will, record the whole of Shakespeare's sonnets. They live at the side of my bed and are my constant companions.

It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.

My dad went at 86. A car killed him. He was crossing the road.

I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.

My favorite food from my homeland is Guinness. My second choice in Guinness. My third choice - would have to be Guinness.

I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.

It's such a relief for me to sit in front of a tape recorder and not be using it to learn my lines.

It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.

I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.

Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.

I put steam on the table by being an actor. That is how I live. The longer I live, the more expensive it becomes. So I do my work. And I can't be immensely picky. How many beautiful scripts come in one's lifetime? I have had more than anybody, practically.

It's a razor's edge, a romance with an old man and a young woman.

In my day England, Scotland, Wales had 80 drama schools. There are none left. So there's no training, no discipline.

An Oscar is a symbol that is known in every corner of the world.

I'm Irish. That means I'm Catholic. But, truth is, now I'm a retired Christian.

The only thing I've ever been interested in teaching anyone in life is cricket.

A few years back I was asked if I would go and meet a director and his various acolytes, and it occurred to me halfway through the meeting that what I was doing was auditioning. And I thought, 'Well, hang on buddy. I've done half a century of this.'

I can make the best French toast.

I suggest that an education and reading and facts aren't bad things on which to ponder a few notions.

I've played farce on the stage, but I have never played any sort of comedy on the screen.

No one should ever know where conduct ends and acting begins. Conduct unbecoming. That's what acting is.

I take whatever good part comes along.

The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

All the minor sports injuries you acquire over the years begin to multiply like flies when you get over 70.

My father was a racetrack bookie.

When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.

A rubber neck is a necessary part of equipment.

I love working with young people which to me is a big kick.

I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV.

I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.

If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.

My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.

There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

We were in the Arabian Desert for nine months. And I was having the time of my life. It could have been an archeological expedition, a military expedition.

Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.

Writing is a kind of performing art, and I can't sit down to write unless I'm dressed. I don't mean dressed in a suit, but dressed well and comfortably and I have to be shaved and bathed.

For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.

Irish women are always carrying water on their heads, and always carrying their husbands home from pubs. Such things are the greatest posture-builders in the world.

I can't stand light. I hate weather.

Actors have to stay optimistic. The moment we start thinking otherwise, we're dead.

I love working with the young.