Anthony Hopkins

“It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you're going to do a day's work and at the end of it, it's go...”

“Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.”

“I don't know why they gave me a knighthood - though it's very nice of them - but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don't.”

“For me, time is the greatest mystery of all. The fact is that we're dreaming all the time. That's what really gets me. We have a fathomless lake of unconsciousness just beneath our skulls.”

“I worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.”

“I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can't be locked up with anyone for too long.”

“I don't have many friends; I'm very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated, and I've never been really close to anyone.”

“I love life because what more is there?”

“I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.”

“I spent two years in the military service, then I trudged around in repertory for quite a while. I somehow wound up at the National Theatre, though, and then I was definitely on my way.”

“People forget that Mozart wrote for commissions. There's a thing in psychology where they think if it's popular, it can't be serious.”

“I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.”

“It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.”

“Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.”

“I love roller coasters. I don't get a chance often, but I've gone to Magic Mountain and gone on the rides. I love roller coasters.”

“I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.”

“I'm interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.”

“I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.”

“I'm a pretty tough guy, you know. I'm a pretty hard man. I've got a lot of compassion, but I don't waste time with people.”

“My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough.”