My body of work means nothing to me
I just feel that no matter what comes in a career - and mine has been all over the map - you must stay at the table, pick up the cards you're dealt and play them.
When I closed in "King Lear" I went into a period of depression for about three weeks, and every actor I've talked to who's ever played a major, major Shakespeare role has done this.
All of our health is basically genetics.
And the test for any actor is whether you stay at the table or go away.
But I firmly believe that you can't be emotionally free until you are emotionally committed.
There are no taboos in bed, and there shouldn't be any taboos in bed.
The only thing you have then to believe in is your craft.
There is no right in acting.
The last few years have been pretty hectic.
I watch actors destroy themselves by trying to get it right.
Where you are is where it's at.... Don't ever give up & don't ever give in.
There's a certain secret every actor must have in his work. If you reveal it, you're letting the audience in on the wrinkles and convolutions of your brain. All I want them to do is to see the effect.
Then, for a hot three or four weeks I wanted to be a concert pianist.
Each of us needs something - food, liquor, pot, whatever - to help us survive. Dracula needs blood.
When asked what it takes to succeed in the acting profession, Bette Davis would answer, "The courage to be hated."
Actors want to show off and dance in front of you and get your love, because they don't think they're worthy of it in any other way.
I always signed autographs when I could and always stayed and chatted with them when I could.
At this point in my career, I can stand shoulder to shoulder with an actor my age who has chosen to do really awful things, and he will get a job over me.
I just always thought, I love acting and I love writing. And when I haven't got any more good breath and good energy, then I'll write.
But when I was seven or eight, I did my first little piece of acting.
It's also easy to fall back into what's familiar, what feels safe, what you've done before.
However, I don't by any means suggest that I'm always playing myself.
I now want to be playing parts more interesting to me and more exciting to me.
There's nothing like the bravery and the strength and the extraordinary optimism of a five-year-old child in a cancer hospital, fighting to live. It's there inside the spirit.
