BEN KINGSLEY

There is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.

But comedy I'd love to do as much as humanly possible.

I'm very in love with the fact that the camera is revolted by acting and loves behaviour.

As a singer, I might have fallen among thieves. I wonder if I'd still be alive by now.

I have a rather naive approach, I think, to my job.

I would like to make it known, on this program, loud and clear, that I would absolutely embrace with all five of my arms being a Bond villain.

I think if I were to go back on stage I might be in great danger of acting.

I honestly have no strategy whatsoever. I'm waiting for that script to pop through the letterbox and completely surprise me.

The many many imponderables come together when a film opens and for all sorts of reasons it may or may not succeed.

John Lennon and Ringo Starr liked my songs. I used to write songs and they heard me sing songs on stage in London.

I always try to find something I admire about every character I play.

That hunger of the flesh, that longing for ease, that terror of incarceration, that insistence on tribal honour being obeyed: all of that exists, and it exists everywhere.

Filming is so much to do with rhythm, as is music, and if it isn't there then you know in the end nobody can save it really, they can't.

I think that you can fall into bad habits with comedy... It's a tightrope to stay true to the character, true to the irony, and allow the irony to happen.

When you drop your guard in films, the acting process compensates. You get lazy and you start acting.

There have not been any troughs as regards my work. There's never been a trough of my assurance.

I've never had to turn my hand to anything for monetary gain, other than pretending to be somebody else. I'm deeply fortunate.

One of the greatest things drama can do, at it's best, is to redefine the words we use every day such as love, home, family, loyalty and envy. Tragedy need not be a downer.

Fifteen years before I became a screen actor, I was in the theatre. A lot of my work was comedy, which I loved doing. It's harder.

I think the cinema you like has more to do with silence, and the theater you like has more to do with language.

I don't honestly think people know what acting is.

Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.

The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!

If I were to play somebody who ran a fish and chip shop, I would not work in a fish and chip shop for three months. Staring at chips is not going to help me in my performance.

In England, it's now Sir Ben. Mister has just disappeared. It's not even on my passport anymore. They've taken Mister away from me.