I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.

First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

The best research [for playing a drunk] is being a British actor for 20 years.

The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly -- because if they don't speak fast nobody will listen to them.