A lot of my best parts I've been the second choice for, so you never get too egotistical about anything.
A lot of people said, Who do you think you are? I told them I know exactly who I am and I'll tell you exactly where I'm going.
Alfie was the first time I was above the title; the first time I became a star in America.
Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.
At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn't a 68-year-old girl, either.
Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
By the time the Oscars are on I'll be seventy. How many more chances am I going to have to get nominated for an Oscar?
Comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write.
English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.
For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.
For Cider House Rules, I was doing a New England accent.
Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.
God willing, even I might scrape a nomination.
Harvey Weinstein is a friend of mine.
I can never be the hero now. You have to be young and all that stuff. I used to be the hero.
I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I'm pig-headed.
I didn't know what I knew. I wasn't aware of what I knew.
I do enjoy working, and I do enjoy getting paid.
I don't have to work. I suppose I should retire. But I enjoy working.
I don't like getting up early in the morning and learning all that stuff. I work with offers that I can't refuse.
I don't see myself as anything. I just wander around getting on with my life.
I feel that I helped the working class by just saying there are no barriers, which I consider to be true.
I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.
I had been in that part of the world as a soldier in Korea, so I had been interested in Vietnam.
I made a film years ago called Sleuth with Laurence Olivier.
I never listened to the people who said I should give it up, which is the main advice I got.
I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.
I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.
I see myself as 38, but you don't notice it.
I sit waiting for things that I can't refuse.
I spent 30 years of my life not being wanted at all for films.
I started with the firm conviction that when I came to the end, I wanted to be regretting the things that I had done, not the things I hadn't.
I want to stick around with the big boys. I don't want to be in the old folks home.
I was in Jaws for 10 minutes, it's not my responsibility.
I was in Nassau on the Oscar night, and I couldn't get back. I couldn't even get it on the television.
I wear a baseball cap all the time, which I would never normally wear, and I walk very fast.
I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.
I'd never been in one of those great big blockbusters.
I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.
I'm a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.
I'm doing the next Batman. I have to become obsessed about what is offered to me.
I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
I'm not a betting man. I would not bet on the Best Actor here.
I'm not in the Lifetime Achievement area yet-I'm still battling it out in the trenches.
I'm the audience's representative on earth.
I'm very much more choosy now. I do stuff that I really, really, really like.
I've always played very human sort of characters.
I've been on movies where I literally couldn't hear what the other actor was saying. It's very awkward.
I've done my job and I've got the picture out there, and I'm very happy with it.
If I was in charge of the movies I wouldn't let them put any of those reveals or tricks on the DVDs because I hate them.
If I work with a bad actor, my reaction is to immediately become worse than they are.
If you held a pistol at my head, I couldn't tell you who they're going to vote for Best Actor.
If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.
If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.
January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out.
My dialogue coach said to do a Texas accent, you lean on the next word, and that was the clue to me.
My own mentality is that I've retired. They send me these scripts and if I absolutely have to do it, then I go to work.
Nobody did a campaign for me. I was nominated out of the blue and won out of the blue. So that was it.
Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.
Oh, what a shock. My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award.
Olivier, you know, was sort of very flamboyant and that character played by me would not be quite as flamboyant.
Save your money. You're going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.
Sometimes, in a part, everything comes together.
The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.
The first actor I ever saw was The Lone Ranger. I thought, That's what I want to do.
The old guys like me started in the theatre. I was in the theatre for nine years.
The Quiet American is anti the people who took them into the Vietnam War.
The standing ovation threw me.... to be held in such regard in a town so full of talent is quite something.
There's quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.
Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.
We can only use British actors because everybody's got to talk exactly the same.
We're only here for some fun. If you learn something, all well and good, but we're only here to give you some fun.
When I was 6 my father went to fight in the war, so he was my big hero. I thought he was the greatest thing.
When I'm doing an accent, you shouldn't notice it for a while, if I'm doing it right.
When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.
You can write shorthand and still look at the guy you're talking to.
You can't get blase about something you haven't done yet.
You don't make any money when you're my age. The stars get it all. That's a lie, actually.
You don't sacrifice your individuality; you sacrifice a lot of freedom.
He co-owns the restaurant, Langan's Brasserie in London England.
Unlike some actors who adopt their stage name for everyday use, Michael still uses his real name when he is not working.
One of Michael's well known roles includes the spy "Harry Palmer", in The Ipcress File (1965).
Michael has been married twice.
Michael came into the public eye as an upper-class British army officer in the film, Zulu (1964).
Michael's parents are Maurice Micklewhite and Ellen Maria.
Michael took his name from the film The Caine Mutiny (1954).
Michael shares his birthday with Quincy Jones, Taylor Hanson, Kylie and Keaton Tyndall, and Chris Klein.
Michael is close friends with Sir Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Elton John and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
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