Bafta Winners People

"My biggest flaw is probably my attention span or lack thereof. And while it might seem contradictory, my biggest strength is my work ethic."

"For me, when it comes to looking for the next job, it’s about the message, and that is the same thing for Spider-Man."

"I wouldn’t say I particularly have a history of issues with mental health. I just feel like I am a young person living in a world where we are expected to share every moment online. We are under the pressures of public opinion and other people’s opinions, and you’ve got these pressures of delivering to a certain standard. And it’s stressful. It’s hard."

"I don't make social statements in my pictures [...] though I do feel a film should be about something—that it have a raison d'etre. It should not shy away from social problems."

"[On why he was not making a theatrical feature film for the studios] They'd say these films were too wordy, too cerebral, too much dialogue [...] They often want films with a minimum of dialogue and lots of action and limited adult themes to sell abroad."

"[On why he was liking directing a television film] They leave you alone; there's no interference, no second guessing."

"So many aspects of our life have disappeared from movie screens [...] And they're now appearing on cable."

"I got involved with the issue of racism when I was a kid in Canada. When I was 17 or 18 we were at war so I joined the Canadian Navy. ... When I got out, I’ll never forget I had a month’s leave which you had to take before they demobilized you. During that time you could do whatever you wanted as long as you reported back. Someone told me that if you go to the States and you’re in uniform they treat you like a king. You can get a ride anywhere for nothing. So I started hitchhiking. I went to Chicago and then I kept going south. I was somewhere just outside Memphis and I wanted to get to the highway. A bus came along and I got on because I didn't have to pay. So I got on and sat in the back because it was a hot day and the windows were down. About five minutes later the bus stopped and the driver – a big beefy guy – looked at me through the mirror and said "you tryin' to be funny sailor?" I said no and he said "well can't you read the sign?" So I look up and there's a hand-painted sign on a piece of tin hanging by a wire in the middle of the bus. It said "colored people to the rear." So I looked around and sure enough there were a few black people sitting around me and the white people were in front. I didn't know what to do. I was so young I didn't realize there was this kind of racial tension in America. So [I] said "I'll get off the bus." He drove off and left me standing on a dusty street by myself."

"The famous slap, where [Virgil] Tibbs retaliates against a racist landowner, wasn't improvised, though, as has been suggested. I kept telling [[Sidney Poitier|[Sidney] Poitier]] that Tibbs was a sophisticated detective, not used to being pushed around. I showed him how to do the slap. "Don't hit him on the ear," I said. "I want you to really give him a crack on the fatty side of his cheek." I told him to practise on me. A black man had never slapped a white man back in an American film. We broke that taboo."

"He gives his actors room and keeps them as calm as he can, because it's easier to speak with them when they're calm. A director has to keep the actors on their toes while the camera's running, but when the scene is done, they should be relaxing, nothing on their minds. There can't be a constant level of seriousness. And with Norman, there's always a lot of laughter."

"For me, films are about ideas [...] Every director should ask himself, 'Why am I making this picture?' And if you can't answer that, you shouldn't make it."

"[On John Wayne] The drunker he got the more he wanted to punch me out."

"A feeling is something that’s really important to have! Real life is not always easy. You cannot always look at the good stuff. But just because something is not positive, it’s not like it’s going to kill you. You don’t have to say, “No, no, no.”"

"For an era when women were expected to conform, these women are totally in charge of the show. To read a piece of material from a period drama told from the woman’s perspective is just so unique."

"I went through this period where I was just obsessed with makeup and I wore a ton of it, and then I suddenly realized how much I was wearing, and the fact that I was spending all this money. I think now I'm just trying to be more comfortable with what I have rather than having to cover up. But I do love putting makeup on for a night out."

"The older I get, the more I want to be authentically myself."

"I do think the one thing ageing allows you is to go, 'Well, I know what I like, I know what I don't like.'"

"It takes a long time to figure out what you care about."

"All I really care about is staying alive for as long as possible for my children, because I don't want them to have to experience loss."

"It was really shocking; it was the first time I had ever been dragged into something like that. And it wasn't just me, it was my family. I had seen the absurdity of what I was being accused of, and what my partner was being accused of. I decided for my own health that I was not going to try and convince these people otherwise. I just wasn't going to do it."

"I think everybody's political. The act of being alive is political. Unless you choose to be a hermit, you're automatically political, because you're part of a community."

"It's difficult in an economy like ours to call yourself a socialist, because we're living in a capitalist society where we all benefit from that. But in terms of where we are going politically, a lot of people would like to see a more equitable distribution."

"I don't understand how it happened so suddenly; why the upper echelons of society have flourished while other people suffer."

"You have to remember children are not usually very interested in what their parents do for a living."

"In the early Eighties people thought feminism was over, but now, my God, we’re dealing with third-wave feminism, which is extraordinary."

"When I see people do extraordinary things and I think: How did they do that?"

"Sometimes when things are mysterious to us– the thing that we do, you just do one, two, three and it’s done. But something that is outside of your abilities or your world and it’s mysterious, it’s amazing."

"No, you're only brave in the face of something you're afraid of, and I'm not afraid of stories, of emotion, of people. So I don't feel it's risky. I feel it's an exploration of something human."

"My mother always told me that for a person to be happy they need love and work."

"What did I dream about at Boots? Well, the big ambition was to get onto the cosmetics, but I never made it...""

"I keep saying I'm going to retire. Well I am now."

"Not many people know that."

"I had to go off on my own. So, okay, I haven’t got Michael Caine, I’d better get Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Kenneth Branagh, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Cillian Murphy, Tom Conti, and hoped that all those greats would add up to one Michael Caine."

"[On assuming he would never be a star] Because I thought you had to be very handsome and all that – kissing the girls and everything – and I wasn't like that when I was young. I was an ugly, skinny bastard."

"[On his 50-year long marriage to his wife Shakira] [W]e went to Vegas for my 40th birthday, and we got married. It was where a lot of famous people had got married, because there were pictures of all of them on the wall. I was looking round thinking, f—g hell, I’m getting married where whatisname got married, and so-and-so. And then, at the end, I looked round, and realised every single person on the wall had got divorced. I thought, oh s—t, this isn't going to last long, then."

"[On his National Service] And then when I was 19 they sent me to Korea – which was not a very nice idea for your 19th birthday. I wasn't a big professional soldier, and it wasn't a big war. The Korean War was like the First World War, we all lived in trenches and fought each other in the dark; but I was still s—t scared, as everybody else was. So I understood those things – death and close friends dying and getting injured."

"But I'm 90. I don't worry about the future. I worry if I'm gonna make it to lunch."

""My name is Sir Maurice" or "My name is Sir Michael"?"

"I'm both, but I will use Sir Michael Caine."

"I'm very lucky the whole face has not collapsed."

"[On his father, Maurice Micklewhite Snr, a soldier during World War II] He liberated the Pope."

"My worst roles have been in movies I made solely for the money — like Jaws – The Revenge. I was offered a small part in a fourth of the 'big shark' movies at a tremendous fee, and I took it. I have never seen the film, but by all accounts, it was terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it's terrific."

"I was named after my father and I was knighted in his name because I love my father. I always kept my real name - I'm a very private and family-orientated person."

"I think I'm going to be overexposed after total anonymity."

"Peggy joked in an interview in 1984."

"a quite wonderful woman and actress, which were indivisible in her case."

"While we watch her, we view the world through the eyes of a great person."

"It was as if all the lights had suddenly gone up. It is true even in her own living room."

"I never thought I was subject matter for an Oscar. How wonderful to be given it, I’ve been killed with kindness."

"Peggy while receiving oscar award in 1985."