- The film business is absurd. Stars don't last very long. It's much more interesting to be a proper actor.
- When I go out on stage I like to be aware that there are a lot of women there. They are generally the loudest laughers.
- [speaking in 1961] "Take all this thing now about working-class actors and writers: it's simply a release of certain talents from that class."
- I never did anything about my stardom, it never meant anything to me.
- I don't want to peak too early. The worry is that you never know until it's all over whether you peaked at all - and then you're finished and it's too late.
- There just doesn't seem to be a market for something with aspiration anymore.
- [in a 1983 interview] I'm not sure that being a movie star appeals to many English actors. The main thing is to have something inspiring to do.
- [on "Doctor Zhivago"] We were all sitting in a horrible hotel in Spain waiting for snow. In six months, I did only three weeks work... Indeed it was good money, but I felt I should be learning my craft, doing long speeches, and learning how to go loud and soft, and quick and slow, and how to keep the audience awake.
- [on rejecting playing "Jesus of Nazareth"] If you were going to play one of the most powerful creatures who ever lived, you'd better have a well-written part. Also, I wondered if I ever did meet Jesus, whether He'd ask, 'Well, what was that supposed to be?'
- [on his co-star Albert Finney in 1983] I used to be very in awe of him and was never comfortable in his presence. Of all people, he really gave me the willies because I didn't really know him.
- In my thirty-four years I have learnt a good deal about women... which is why I'm still single.
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