25 Quotes by Tom Courtenay

I keep saying that backwards is all you can see. You can’t see front. My wife says, “Stop, you’re always in the past.” She sees me sort of daydreaming.

The old actors in the old days, they used to go on tour, to get the play ready for the West End, and to learn their lines. The old timers used to say, “Be very careful, dear boy, what you get in to during the first weeks of a long tour.”

There just doesn’t seem to be a market for something with aspiration anymore.

It was still quite late when I got married, 30s, I don’t know.

The film business is absurd. Stars don’t last very long. It’s much more interesting to be a proper actor.

My occupation has been a great deal with David Foster Wallace, and he didn’t manage it, and he was very much looking for something that isn’t totally selfish, and finding meaning. It’s a struggle.

This is something particular to actors, especially in plays, and in films, too – but in plays, it’s like, don’t get involved with anyone in the play.