"I knew it was the proper thing to have an interval during a show, so I gave out that there would be one of 20 minutes. 'Nonsense,' said a voice in the audience. 'Ten minutes is quite long enough.'
"I was furious with father for butting in like that."
A 1942 interview with the Mercury, recalling his first production, a show at St Barnabas Hall in Leicester
"It's part of my need to revolt against the early Dickie Attenborough fan image – you know, the Peter Puberty of Charm School, which I set to efface by deliberately playing middle-aged roles."
Interview before the release of The Bliss of Miss Blossom, 1966
"I found it harder growing up than Mickey Mouse. I was becoming haunted by the stigma of my simpering, whining image. Then, one day, I read a critic who said I had become the boy next door to dreariness and suddenly I knew my career was very sick indeed.
"I became a producer as I really believed that was the only way I could stay in the business."
Making the move behind the camera, 1969
"I had been on ARP duty and was walking back up to the side of Victoria Park where we had a house and suddenly I saw David and John pedalling towards me like crazy to tell me I had won it."
Discovering he'd won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
"I'm upset that so many Indian filmmakers are worried. But let's get the facts straight. It has been a long time since Gandhi died and none of them has come up with a film."
The director decides the best form of defence is attack after taking flak for making his biopic of Gandhi
"I'm very passionate. I cry because I care. I feel things very deeply. I'm motivated by my emotions."
On his 'luvvie darling' image, 1992
"I came from a family who believed that in order to justify the sort of luxurious life that the majority of us have, related to the whole world, that you had to do something."
Interviewed on stage at the BFI in 2003 to mark his 80th birthday
"I'm not competitive with Dave. Not one iota. In fact, I think that's given me more joy than almost anything, Dave's unparalleled success."
Scoffing at the suggestion of inter-sibling rivalry in an interview with The Guardian in 2003
"David has asked me, a number of people have asked me, 'what performance do you like best?' or 'what's the best film you've made?' and so on and I don't really have any hesitation that the film I'm least embarrassed by and ashamed of or uneasy about is Shadowlands."
Picking a winner
"Of course, I'd rather have nice things written about me, but I'm not a great auteur, I'm not a great director. I'm a good director. I have an ability to make people examine certain circumstances."
A typically modest quote, from 2003
"At my age, the only problem is with remembering names. When I call everyone darling, it has damn all to do with passionately adoring them, but I know I'm safe calling them that. Although, of course, I adore them, too."
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