Alan Bates

“No film should try to follow a trend, and do what film people think the public wants. There's no such thing as knowing what the public wants.”

“I've never believed much in that holding hands kind of love. I've always thought that love is about two different personalities trying to confront life, trying to make sense of their responsibilities, to themselves, to each other, and to the wider society.”

“An emotional performance is usually more instinctive to an actor.”

“I think that can happen, that two people can love each other and not be able to get on at all.”

“I have always tried to work according to what affects me, to a script that I like because it touches me in some way, without deliberately pursuing a commercial career or a particular image.”

“You can time a part perfectly and play it badly. And some people have very individual offbeat timing, which is their own. It works simply because they are who they are.”

“People ask, how do you cope, and all I can say is that you do.”

“You've got to have steel in you somewhere.”

“I think actors are privileged. Acting feeds you.”

“Occasionally I do things against my inner voice, but you really should go for the thing that touches you most-even if you don't quite know why it does.”

“I do believe in living out your own time, unless it's absolutely impossible, which it is for some people.”

“You can't always go by the book, even in comedy.”