I'm actually as common as mud. I'm not particularly well read, or bred. But the way I look... I seem to have this sort of 'aristocratic' demeanor.

You have to be selfish to be an actor.

I'm playing one of the principal roles, which gives you more clout and more confidence.

It's a question of keeping one's eyes and ears open and watching how other people play the game. They're watching me too, to see what my attitude is like.

I was a window dresser for Burton's once. What really put me off was the area manager coming round and saying, Charles, I think you're a natch at this.

A handful of older, romantic leading men, like Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Redford are still landing parts.

I spent a lot of time [between takes] apologising to Peter Dinklage [Dance's on-screen son, Tyrion Lannister] because I treat him appallingly.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

A car to pick me up every day, a chair with my name on it, everybody being very polite... what can you do except sit back and watch it all, try to take it all in?

Power is always a corrupting influence. In this mythical time - let's call it medieval, feudal - people in power are dictatorial and don't want their positions of power to be threatened.

When you get to a certain age, the work begins to thin out.

In the moment of decision, may you hear the voice of the Creator saying, ‘This is right road, travel on it.

The sublimity of administration consists in knowing the proper degree of power that should be exerted on different occasions.

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.

Not one man in five cycles, who is wise, will expect appreciative recognition from his fellows, or any one of them.

Art doesn't sell itself, it has to be sold.

I was raped. That was a hard thing to write about. I never owned that part of it. Guys don't look at themselves as being raped. We're not raised that way.

I was real into Devo, Pavement, Captain Beefheart, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Publishers are thieves, they are on the other side of the barricade.

People go, 'Hey, did you do anything special for the Super Bowl?' Well no, I like to think I do the same amount of work every week getting ready for a game.

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