Quotes

There are two types of animals roaming the Hollywood jungle. Those who do the screwing, those who get screwed. You have to try to ensure you're one of the former.

I was at some crummy party somewhere, and here's my agent talking, and he says, "So, what do you do?" I said, "You're my agent!" I'll never forget him saying that.

[on the era of Margaret Thatcher] The whole period outraged me. Things like the nation's 'jubilation' that she had committed an international war crime, sinking the Belgrano. Naturally, she would support Pinochet, a mass-murderer, because, in effect, she did the same thing and lied about it. The boat was not going in the direction she said it was, it was going in the opposite direction, and it was full of sea cadets, boys. She murdered 250 young men to get herself a war. Before the election, she was absolutely loathed, so she did what they all do: rush out and kill a few foreigners.

That five, six months with Zeffirelli completely destroyed me as an actor, the desire to do it and the ability to do it. He made me terrified of directors, because he was the first professional director I'd ever had and he treated me like shit.

[on Richard E. Grant]: Richard's a vicious old tart, and he obviously he had the wherewithal to play Withnail, otherwise he wouldn't have done it like he did. Withnail's quite a nasty guy, in many ways. He's a thief, a coward and - the ultimate treachery - he's prepared to sacrifice his friend to get what he wants. Withnail was a time-bomb ticking in Richard for many years, I think. Withnail was the detonator to allow that side of his personality to come out, and he's fundamentally changed.

Cooking and masturbation are the only things I'm really good at,

[on first seeing Richard E. Grant in a photograph]: He looked like a fat Dirk Bogarde.