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.

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

Your senses are reeling all the time. Finally you find something to write and the very next day you go out and see something else which totally contradicts what you've written and every conclusion you've come to.

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?

I phoned this number and said, Please, sir, I want to be an actor.

You have to be selfish to be an actor.

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.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

If I talk about Charles Dance I am talking about something else, something I operate and wind up and have to make an impression with and use to transmit someone else's screenplay.

We had five goats, two dogs, a cat and racks of commentaries on Shakespeare.

Most films are written and made with a hero around 35, or even 25.

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

A while ago, I did a television adaptation of 'Bleak House,' and the character I played, as far as I was concerned, had no redeeming features whatsoever. I wasn't about to try to find any; I didn't need to.

I got a lot of energy from directing the film 'Ladies In Lavender.' You wonder if you have the stamina because as an actor you can lounge around the trailer during the scenes you're not in, but as a director, you're there from first thing in the morning to last thing at night every day of the week. I found it incredibly energising.

I mostly play old period songs, as they suit a ukulele more. I bought it when I saw the tribute concert to George Harrison. Joe Brown came on and sang 'I'll See You In My Dreams,' and there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

I've got a range as an actor! There was a time I played dramatic leading men.

I've never been one for late nights, which is why I have always preferred making films to theatre. A play takes over your life: you start to feel sick at lunchtime, and by mid-afternoon, you're wishing for a bomb scare so the whole thing will be called off. Of course, if the evening goes well and you get the applause, then it's wonderful.

If I was to put a little flag in everywhere I've been in the world, there'd be a lot of little flags.

My face lends itself to austere characters, and unless they're two-dimensional, I will do them. Any actor will tell you that an interesting villain is much more interesting to play.

People think I have the benefit of a public school education. I have this suave and debonair label, but really, I'm as common as muck.

Politics is the most corrupt profession on Earth, no matter where you are.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

We have to take risks in British television. It has to stop playing to the lowest common denominator and patronising people.

We need to look to our laurels a bit with television in this country. I don't think enough risks are being taken in drama television in the U.K., and I think a lot of programme makers are underestimating the intelligence of the viewing public, basing it all on ratings.

You should encourage a child to show off. You can say to a child, 'Stop being rude,' 'Stop shouting,' 'Stop jumping around on the furniture.' But 'Stop showing off'? That's awful.

The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.

My manager and my agents, they go over my contracts.

As a goalkeeper you need to be good at organising the people in front of you and motivating them. You need to see what's going on and react to the threats. Just like a good manager in business.

Did you know that the state is the proud owner of a condo complex in Conway? This budget adds a real estate manager position to assess what we own, and sell those properties that we don't need and shouldn't own.

And I'm the kind of manager that doesn't believe that you micro-manage professionals. They should understand their responsibility and carry out those responsibility.

My father, a mining engineer and colliery manager, gave his brood many advantages not least of which, for me, was his love of singing which gave music a central place in our lives.

Coaches are an integral part of any manager's team, especially if they are good pinochle players.

When I got hoarse, the manager would say, 'Drink this. Joplin used to drink this,' and I used to say, 'Joplin? Joplin's dead.

I like to make everything my friends are involved in a little better. I should have just become a manager.

And, we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager freaks when we show him the bill. We're lavish to the bone, but all our money goes back into the product.

My dad takes care of me as a manager and as a dad. That's his job, you know, to take care of me. He has my best interests at heart.

The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.

I've left Boro in the Premiership, which was always what I wanted to do. Actually that's not quite true. I took them to three cup finals, where they'd never been before. But I had set my eyes on being the first manager in their history to deliver a major trophy.

All of those things had been talked about, suggested, rumored, as a manager and as a member of the Knicks organization, I couldn't allow myself to think that way or believe that.

I don't believe a manager ever won a pennant. Casey Stengel won all those pennants with the Yankees. How many did he win with the Boston Braves and Mets?

Most of the pressure comes from myself, not from others. I don't need a manager or a pundit to put pressure on me. I do all that myself before others do it.

More than anyone else, Hank Aaron made me wish I wasn't a manager.

Five minutes before I went on, I looked at my manager and said, I'm going to get booed. I know it's going to happen. And you're responsible because you put me on here. It was horrible. I've never been more hurt in my entire life.

When we first went there we completely lacked confidence. Our manager told us our act was too long, and told us to drop certain numbers and concentrate on the exciting stuff. And he was right.

I think maintaining relationships with my friends, my mother, my manager, they're all important.

I am happy with what I do. I'd love to be the manager of the Atlanta Braves, but they hired somebody this week. So I'll just have to be inordinately happy with one of the best jobs on the planet.

I was modeling with an agency in New York and a manager with the agency introduced himself to me one day and he said he had auditions for someone my age. He asked if I would be interested in doing some.