Quotes

Call me Sir if you like! Maybe people in America think being a Sir is a big deal. But I think we should all be misters together. I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery. And it also helps keep us 'quaint,' which I'm not a great fan of. You don't get much with the title anymore. That was all carved up by the robber barons in the Middle Ages.

[speaking in 1961] "My job is acting, and that is why I hate interviews or lectures, explaining myself to an audience."

I'm not the romantic type ... I'm a bit like the late, great Peter Sellers, only happy in character roles.

After I played a homosexual character in A Man of No Importance (1994), an American journalist asked if I'd have a rainbow flag on my car's bumper. I said I don't 'do' bumper stickers, but if I did, I'd be pleased to use that one. After all, everyone's included in the rainbow, aren't they?

[on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)] "I was the first man to be seen sleeping with another man's wife in an English film."

"On the Waterfront (1954) came out and there were 150 guys [at RADA] all doing Brando impressions".

I just felt I was being used. I wasn't involved ... I felt bored most of the time. - On Tom Jones (1963)

[on Charles Laughton] He was the first kind of legend I actually had contact with professionally, which was very exciting. I admired him in his movies; I'd never seen him on the stage. I thought he was terrific.

[1987 comment on John Huston] I kinda loved John. He was like a second father to me in many ways, which I know may sound odd considering I was 45 when I first worked with him, but when you had to say goodbye there was always this feeling of loss, that terrible sadness that you'd be deprived of his company. I've seen more films by him than anybody else on the planet.

[1967 comment on director Karel Reisz] I think Karel is very good with actors; he's very interested in the actors creating a character and not just relying on personality, he's good at encouraging actors to explore the characterization, and I think that's the kind of acting I'm interested in.

I accept the fact of change. The Lowry painting of the industrial north with the factory chimneys and smoke ... that was going to be forever. It looked eternal, and yet it's all gone. Now when you see the Test match from Old Trafford on the television, you can actually see the Pennines which you couldn't before. It's change for the better in some ways.