“I have got prostate cancer, and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it, but other people are dying from it.”

“I'm not quite as cool as I would like to be, really.”

“Godot is whatever it is in life that you are waiting for: 'I'm waiting to win the lottery. I'm waiting to fall in love'. For me, as a child, it was Christmas. At least that eventually came.”

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

“The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living.”

“I'd never read 'Lord of the Rings' until I was asked to play Gandalf, so I didn't really know it was a frightfully famous book.”

“In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.”

“My soul, sir? I haven't got one. The management doesn't allow them.”

“Never be satisfied with less than your very best effort. If you strive for the top and miss, you'll still 'beat the pack.”

“People don't like to wait for words, they want the words to wait for them.”

“Ive learned that waiting is the most difficult bit, and I want to get used to the feeling, knowing that youre with me, even when youre not by my side.”

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.”

“They had killed themselves over our dying forests, over manatees maimed by propellers as they surfaced to drink from garden hoses; they had killed themselves at the sight of used tires stacked high...”

“The world seemed to shimmer a little at the edges.”

“If we cannot accept the importance of the world, which considers itself important, if in the midst of that world our laughter finds no echo, we have but one choice: to take the world as a whole and...”