When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

There might be 1 finger on the trigger, but there will be 15 fingers on the safety catch.

(A Foreign Secretary) is forever poised between the cliche and the indiscretion.

No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.

It is the duty of Her Majesty's government neither to flap nor to falter.

As usual the Liberals offer a mixture of sound and original ideas. Unfortunately none of the sound ideas is original and none of the original ideas is sound.

At home, you always have to be a politician; when you're abroad, you almost feel yourself a statesman.

Once the bear's hug has got you, it is apt to be for keeps.

I read a great number of press reports and find comfort in the fact that they are nearly always conflicting.

He is forever poised between a cliche and an indiscretion.

It's no use crying over spilt summits.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

It has been said that there is no fool like an old fool, except a young fool. But the young fool has first to grow up to be an old fool to realize what a damn fool he was when he was a young fool.

When the curtain falls, the best thing an actor can do is to go away.

Power? It's like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.

To be alive at all involves some risk.

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.

Memorial services are the cocktail parties of the geriatric set.

I was a sort of son to Ike, and it was the other way round with Kennedy.

In long experience I find that a man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

I have never found, in a long experience of politics, that criticism is ever inhibited by ignorance.

If people want a sense of purpose they should get it from their archbishop. They should certainly not get it from their politicians.

Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be the kind of man nobody trusts.

If you don't believe in God, all you have to believe in is decency. Decency is very good. Better decent than indecent. But I don't think it's enough.

I was determined that no British government should be brought down by the action of two tarts.

Britain's most useful role is somewhere between bee and dinosaur.

Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautiful in its way, but incapable of growth.

No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother if it is both he is twice blessed indeed.

Once the bears hug has got you it is apt to be for keeps.

Marxism is like a classical building that followed the Renaissance; beautifu in its way, but incapable of growth.

My favorite actor is Wallace Beery.

I've been a very lucky actor.

I don't think I could be happy as an actor if there was a tyrant on the set.

When I was starting to get noticed as an actor in the 1970s for something other than the third cowboy on the right who ended up dying in every movie or episode, Burt Reynolds was the biggest star in the world.

Most parts that can be played by one actor can equally well be played by another, but not this.

I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.

I knew an actor's career goes up and down and back up again. Your standing in this business can't be your whole identity; otherwise, you're doomed.

I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.

I never dreamed about being an actor, because that was out of reach. Coming from a small town that was big in farming, and also big in clothing factories, you don't dream about being a professional football player or an actor.

My goal was always to be recognized as a good actor but no one was interested in that, simply because society just wants to warm towards your appearance. This is the great blemish of society.

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

It was very natural for me to want to disappear into dark theater, I am really very shy. That is something that people never seem to fully grasp because, when you are an actor, you are meant to be an exhibitionist.

I think that I've still not been successful at playing the role of the retired actor, and I'd like to work on that.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor, I said I wanted to work with quality actors and directors.

There are roles I want that my agency might not want me to do because of the subject matter or whatever. Or there are roles that people won't bring to me because they don't think I'll do it. And that is a big strain because an actor wants to act.