Acting is the most personal of our crafts. The make-up of a human being - his physical, mental and emotional habits - influence his acting to a much greater extent than commonly recognized.

Work for the actor lies essentially in two areas: the ability to consistently create reality and the ability to express that reality.

Seventy-five percent of great art is hard work only about twenty-five percent is great talent.

If we cannot see the possibility of greatness, how can we dream it?

The actor creates with his own flesh and blood all those things which all the arts try in some way to describe.

Good health is the most important thing. More than success. More than money. More than power.

The human being who acts is the human being who lives.

Like the Bible, Stanislavsky's basic texts on acting can be quoted to any purpose.

A great actor is independent of the poet, because the supreme essence of feeling does not reside in prose or in verse, but in the accent with which it is delivered.

An actors' tribute to me is in his work.

We no longer believe because it is absurd: it is absurd because we must believe.

REGARDING THE MARCHING BAND: How much more interesting it would be to see a creeping band.

Things can be funny when people are uneasy. It softens them up and stops them falling asleep on the sofa. I like those moments where people half-smile and half-wince.

Ken has three kids. I have three kids. The first movie was basically the story of our lives. Every man is kind of a villain until he then has kids. And then, they soften us up.

The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.

I practice all the scales. Everyone should know lots of scales. Actually, I feel there are only scales. What is a chord, if not the notes of a scale hooked together?

If it weren't for my imagination, I would weigh ten thousand pounds. This is because the only way I am able to exercise anymore is through a long and vivid revenge fantasy.

There is no reason to accept the doctrines crafted to sustain power and privilege, or to believe that we are constrained by mysterious and unknown social laws.

But it struck me that the extreme violence and cruelty of the English Civil War had gone understated.

I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti