- Obviously one's experiences inform one's acting. I think the more experience you have of life, the better it is for an actor. In terms of the parts I played, I think my face had more to do with it. Clearly I wasn't ever going to play romantic leads.
- (On Frank Sinatra) "The great thing about Frank was that you had to stand up to him very quickly. If you did that, he respected you, otherwise he'd walk all over you,"
- (On Porridge (1974)) "I still get people saying 'Let you out, have they, Grouty?"
- (On Porridge (1974)) "I was in just three episodes and, of course, the feature film, so I have to thank the writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais for the fact I'm one of the characters people always remember when they talk about Porridge (1974) because Grouty is so prominent - even though I'm not there. Everybody's frightened to death of him, so they talked about him a lot and so it was a huge character but I didn't have to be there. I more or less accidentally turned up in something special."
- (On Game of Thrones (2011)) "You never know who's going to have their head chopped off next! As far as anything as complex as that goes, if you're playing a part in it, the best thing to do is to concentrate on your own aspect of it, which for me was as Custodian of the Wall. So I really concentrated on all that and kept away from some of the other storylines - if you tried to keep abreast of everything that's going on, you'd drive yourself mad and not be quite so effective in your own performance. In my case, anyway, that's the way I've always worked."
- I have always approached every part I have done as if it will be my last, and that it's the one I will be judged by.
- If you're a character actor, you don't need to wait for the next leading role. But if you are a leading man you have to wait for the next part. Sometimes that means long periods without work.
- Luckily I'm not beautiful - otherwise I might have starved.
- There are at least two Peters. One is shy and reticent, the other is the wild Peter - with a great sense of humour.
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