Bob Hoskins

(speaking in 2007) Bob: Every single age can be great and I'm happy to be the age I am now. I'm not the kind of guy who lives in the past or goes around chasing women. I act my age and still manage to have a good time.

(commenting at 64 at what he enjoys about acting now) Bob: You reach a point where the cameo is the governor. You go in there for a couple of weeks, you're paid a lot of money, everybody treats you like the crown jewels, you're in and out, and if the film's a load of bollocks nobody blames you, y'knowwhadimean. It's wonderful.

(on people who approach him in the street) Bob: Oh, they always think they know me so they jabber on about their wives, their mums, problems they've had with the law and all that. One bloke said to me last week: 'You know my sister,' and I said I don't think so, and he says: 'Course you do - she watches all your films.'

Bob: Acting is like therapy, it's cathartic. It's about showing private moments and being emotionally honest - things that us blokes find hard to do.

Bob: People used to look at me, before I married Linda [his second wife], and think, 'now there's a fella who needs looking after'. There was one woman, a nice lady from Scunthorpe, who offered to share her mortgage-free house with me. I had to reply to that. It took me three weeks. I think I told her I was gay.

Bob: My own mum wouldn't call me pretty.

Bob: Most dictators were short, fat, middle-aged and hairless. Besides Danny Devito, there's only me to play them.

Bob: I've watched films and even forgotten I'm in them.