They say it's good but I didn't know what I was doing until I got into the suit and they put the moustache on me, and somehow, when I got all the drag on, it came out. It was the most amazing thing. I'm truly extraordinary.

Then I got out of the service, and I was going to be a Shakespearean actor.

And I went to New York and died; for 10 years I walked those pavements. I can't think of New York without feeling uncomfortable and feeling like a failure.

You have to have a certain persona to be a star, you know, and I don't have that. I'm a banana.

I went to the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago.

I'm not a star.

I got canceled in the middle of making the pilot.

I wish there was something that - I get all those wonderful letters and wonderful acknowledgments, and I wish I could be more appreciative of what I do. But it's hard for me.

Although in Abbott and Costello, and straight man was first. That's a very interesting concept.

I mean, we had on our show, we had marriages, divorces and other stuff going on. And that was just me.

They say it's good but I didn't know what I was doing until I got into the suit and they put the moustache on me, and somehow, when I got all the drag on, it came out. It was the most amazing thing. I'm truly extraordinary.

But there's a lot of 50's and a lot of boomers and a lot of kids in their 30's that grew up with us.

And it's tough traveling. You know, the hotels and the airports and all that. That part, eating and getting around to the hotel room and then going on.

I played Hamlet, I played Chekhov and Ibsen and all the classics.

You asked what is the secret of a really good sketch. And it is a sketch is a small play. It's got a beginning, and a middle and an end. It should have a plot; it should have the characters, conflict. It is a little play. And in it, will be funny stuff.

Funny is when you're serious.

They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

I feel like history is about going and discovering the great human stories that just are every bit as relevant as anything that's going on today.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

No experience is wasted. It is the stepping stones for a great success.

After I finished 'E.R.', I wanted to concentrate on re-examining what kind of actress I am and taking time for real-life things.

Being on the edge is always worse than going through.

I would return to the Blackadder character if the opportunity came up. I have no qualms about that at all.

I was a boy, suddenly treated like the men and expected to act like them.

Russia and China, when they were communist-like adversaries, they didn't participate. They're participating now in the world with us. They're trading monetary instruments. We're buying and selling goods back and forth, trading oil and so forth.

When you're talking about rock n' roll, myth-making is what it's all about.

The truth is always less interesting than the fiction.

When you say things like, 'We have to wipe out the Taliban,' what does that mean? The Taliban is not a fixed number of people. The Taliban is an ideology that has sprung out of a history that, you know, America created anyway.

I was drawn to things I thought were either sexy or aggressive - or both.

I wish I could swap closets with Diana Vreeland, but I think only my left thigh would fit into her clothing.

Most people’s religion is what they want to believe, not what they do believe.

I don't know what religious people do. I kind of wished I'd been a Christian with the blind faith that God is doing the right thing. As a Buddhist, you feel like you have more control over the situation, and that you can change your karma.

I wanted already to be a filmmaker after I saw 'La Dolce Vita.'

My parents were both high-school music teachers.

That's a lot of words about the weather, but in Canberra you can't help but be aware of the seasons, and there is something wonderful about that. Okay, so there's a distinct lack of beach, but aside from that, the place grows on you.

I knew 'Be Our Guest' would be performed on a set and in costume, but anyone with a history in Theatre In Education will know that can mean anything.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern every class is unfit to govern.

I came up with this really crazy idea, this really small personal story that takes place in a universe that we are familiar with. Rocky is retired, kind of set adrift. He's very lonely in his world. His life has gone by waiting for the inevitable. It's not 'Rocky 7.'

I was at a restaurant in Glasgow, and I was walking down the stairs. A woman passed me and said, 'Oh my God, what are you doing here?' I didn't know who she was, and I was like, 'Sorry?' She goes, 'Oh no, sorry, I follow you on Twitter. I just didn't expect to see you here.'

From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent.