Jeremy Irons

Civility, politeness, it's like a cement in a society: binds it together. And when we lose it, then I think we all feel lesser and slightly dirty because of it.

The sad thing about any business I suppose, but in mine you see it particularly, is that you're always asked to do what you've already done.

Commerce seems to be covering every aspect of our lives now. Which me, because I'm a romantic, is sad for me to say.

I came to London. I spent nine months doing domestic work and gardening because I knew I wanted to get a West End show. So, when I was offered jobs in Stoke or Leicester or whatever, I'd say no. Eventually, I got 'Godspell.' It was gently building.

You can be in love and raise a family wonderfully by not being married, but actually, marriage does give us a strength, because it's quite hard to get out of, and so it makes us fight more to keep it together. If divorce becomes dead easy - which it sort of has - then we don't have that backup. Because, for everybody, relationships are hard.

I constantly experience failure in that my work is never as good as I want it to be. So I live with failure.

So nevertheless, what I'm saying is that what one is - one's parameters are constantly narrowed by one's success, and my desire is to widen my field even if I risk failure.

We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.