We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.

When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.

If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.

Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.

My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.

The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.

I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.

Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

'Richard III' is a really difficult play to film - it's involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I've ever done before.

A man's prime interest in life must be his work.

I can't think I've ever loved anybody quite as much... My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world.

I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.

It took me two years to walk around a chair with ease; it took me another two years to learn how to laugh onstage - and I had to learn everything.

Nine books have been written about me, and there's not a word of truth in any of them.

Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time - every time I have a birthday.

Take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

We used to have actresses trying to become stars; now we have stars trying to become actresses.

If he was lost for a moment he would dive straight back into its honey.

Dont waste your time striving for perfection instead strive for excellence doing your best.

Don't waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence - doing your best.

Almost the only persons who may be said to comprehend even approximately the significance, principles, and purposes of Socialism are the chief leaders of the extreme wings of the Socialistic forces, and perhaps a few of the money kings themselves.

Death comes for us all. Even for kings he comes.

Our most bitter enemies are our own kith and kin. Kings have no brothers, no sons, no mother!

The world is full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

When we fled from the oppressions of kings and parliaments in Europe, to found this great Republic in America, we brought with us the laws and the liberties, which formed a part of our heritage as Britons.

I have dined with kings, I've been offered wings. And I've never been too impressed.

Custom, that unwritten law, By which the people keep even kings in awe.

This principle is old, but true as fate, Kings may love treason, but the traitor hate.

I see upon their noble brows the seal of the Lord, for they were born kings of the earth far more truly than those who possess it only from having bought it.

As a boy I used to go to the Chamber of Horrors at the annual fair, to look at the wax figures of Emperors and Kings, of heroes and murderers of the day. The dead now had that same unreality, which shocks without arousing pity.

Where are the Muslim people's sponsors? Where are its kings? Where are its leaders? The Muslim people is calling upon you, Jerusalem is appealing to you, will anyone answer?

I wanted the feel in these books to be like an epic fantasy, with kings, queens, dukes and court politics, but of course like what I was explaining before, about making the science make sense, you have to make the politics make sense, too.

As great as kings may be, they are what we are: they can err like other men.

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.

I heard the Bloc Party record Japan before it came out in the UK as they are on the V2 record label. I think it has a great vibe and has great songs. I also think the Kings of Leon are right up my street.

The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.

While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings.

Don't forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings.