Ian Mckellen

“I headed out to have a breather at the stage door, dressed in my tramp costume. I had my bowler hat between my feet and there were passers-by, and one of them turned back and said, 'Do you n...”

“Doing some of the 'Lord Of The Rings' press junkets got a bit claustrophobic.”

“I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887 - 1976) lived and painted.”

“There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority, confounded by our numbers and our diversity, and recognising a few...”

“When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much.”

“If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star.”

“My own death threats have declined considerably.”

“In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Some parents react so strongly to the news that their children are gay that the reaction is, 'Get...”

“I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.”

“I often get mistaken for Dumbledore. One wizard is very much like another.”

“I always walk up the escalator on the Tube, and I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and that's good exercise, but you need more than that.”

“Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.”

“When I went to lobby Nelson Mandela while the post-apartheid constitution was being drafted, I asked him to endorse making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of sexuality. I'd been warned...”

“When you grumble about a taxi being dirty, people your own age will absolutely agree with you, whereas younger people say, 'You should be so lucky to have a taxi - I walk to work!' So I have...”

“I don't make any distinction between a popular TV series or blockbuster film and doing Shakespeare. They're different, but as long as the material is good and the intention is honourable, it...”

“If I say often enough that I'm going to be in 'King Kong,' I'm hoping that Peter Jackson will take the hint.”

“'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of...”

“If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.”

“I used to think 'King Lear' was an analysis of insanity, but I don't really think it is. When Lear is supposed to be at his most insane, he is actually understanding the world for the first...”

“There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud.”