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" People on television have trouble with fame because audiences think they're their mates. "

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" '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 being an actor who does the classics. "

" 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's all the same to me. "

" I'm fortunate to be famous for two rather imposing characters like Magneto and Gandalf. "

" I think New York audiences are some of the brightest in the world, and certainly the most enthusiastic. "

" There are people who've enjoyed my work in the theater, and they let me know that it was special for them. I'm not going to say, 'Well, you should have seen me as Gandalf!' "

" It's an interesting but useless bit of information that every single character in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' wears a wig, and many of them wears a prosthetic - false ears, feet, hands. In my case, nose. "

" If I have any audience, they can know that anything I am in, I would go see, with the expectation of being really satisfied. "

" Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it. "

" 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. "

" I think I've become more modest as the years have gone on. "

" Who does understand life? "

" If I was on a march at the moment I would be saying to everyone: 'Be honest with each other. Admit there are limitless possibilities in relationships, and love as many people as you can in whatever way you want, and get rid of your inhibitions, and we'll all be happy. "

" I don't think many people will re-read 'The Da Vinci Code.' "

" I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. "

" I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm. "

" 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 lots of young friends, who fortunately don't treat me as a guru, a person that knows all the answers. "

" 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 that he might giggle if I mentioned homosexuality. "

" I'm only an actor. I'm not a writer. I'm not going to leave any legacy. All I've ever done is learn the lines and say them. "

" 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. "

" It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation. "

" The wonderful thing about modern medicine is that so many of these complaints that used to signify old age and decline can be coped with. "

" I don't really like being with people my own age for long periods, because all we talk about is our decrepitude, how the world is changing for the worse even though it isn't. "

" If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart. "

" In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself. "

" Quakers are terrific. "

" Imagine trying to be a gay actor, a gay anything in modern Russia? Where to be positively oneself, to be affectionate in public with someone you love of the same gender, or to talk of that love in the hearing of anyone under 18, will put you prison? "

" You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people. "

" I'm not being offered a constant stream of wonderful parts with wonderful directors that would keep me away from the theatre. When they turn up, I do them. "

" To be allowed for the first time in your later career to play leading parts in extremely popular movies is not a situation to worry about. "

" When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements. "