Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces around him rather than artistic integrity doesn't know the guy or the body of his work.

If we just made one movie, 'The Hobbit,' the fact is that all the fans, the eight-, nine- and 10-year-old boys, they would watch it 1,000 times. Now, they've got three films they can watch 1,000 times.

One school invited me down, as two pupils had come out, and the headmaster didn't know what to do about it. I said, 'How many students here are gay?' and he said, 'Just these two.' Clearly not. 'How many gay members of staff have you got?' He had no idea. And this was a concerned man.

Establishing the rights for gay people to be married would cost the Australian government nothing financially and would gain for you worldwide respect from people like us and, of course, would change lives enormously - the lives of gay people and of their friends and of their families and therefore of Australia as a whole.

My own death threats have declined considerably.

The BAFTAs give the British point of view, and the Oscars give the American point of view, but the truth is we're all working in an international industry.

I can't make up my mind whether I want to dance like Josef Brown or dance with Josef Brown.

Why not celebrate those who want to marry and bring up a family?

I certainly wouldn't define myself as a northerner. I'm not even really sure what that means. I've lived in London for 50 years. I wasn't born here, but I have spent most of my life here. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. I'm just myself.

When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much.

Bolton School has a great tradition in the liberal arts.

I think with Shakespeare you can be required to do absolutely anything at the turn of a sixpence - suddenly you go into a battle, suddenly you utter something passionate.

I always walk up the escalator on the Tube, and I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and that's good exercise, but you need more than that.

It is really, really wonderful that in your old age you are protected by specialists who understand your problems and sort them out for you. Well, isn't that what we all need?

Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them.

Gandalf is ever-present in my life. I like it.

It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation.

The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them.

I'll never put my memoirs in print.

Eventually, before I die, I hope to have written about every part I've played.

There's something wholesome about the theatre.

Most actors are not rich - they are very poor indeed. What keeps them going is that they just love the job.

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

The one thing you can ask, I think, is that actors get paid a living wage. I would like it if all the repertory theatres that currently exist could do that. It would make a huge difference.

Who does understand life?

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.

There's lots of Tolkien that must be confusing to people.

Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.

I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?'

You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people.

People who are truly horrible are often the most interesting people in the room. You look at them and just say, 'Why?'

Will I miss Gandalf? Well, I don't miss him, because people are constantly coming up to me mentioning him and talking about him, so I don't feel that I've lost contact.

Every time you work is a challenge. There's a constant worry about it, and it's a side of acting I don't like.

In the U.K. there is still work to be done, particularly in schools, stopping the homophobic bullies in the playground and introducing unbiased discussion on gay issues in the classroom.

I just followed my parents' example and advice on living, which was to leave the world a better place than you found it. They were professional do-gooders, ministers of the church, social workers, teachers, and missionaries, that sort of thing.

Fame creeps up on you.

The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.

I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.

It's easier to go from theatre to film than the other way round. In film you're absolutely loved and cossetted and cared for. In film your director makes your performance. In theatre you're carrying it all.

What's nice for me, having identified myself for years as being rather shy, is now, wherever I am, in public, there tends to be a friendly face who's pleased to see me, and I like that.

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

If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.

You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all.

I live for the text. It's my job.

It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do.

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've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy.

My friends are my family.

On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.

Quakers are terrific.