Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.
I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.
I'm fortunate to be famous for two rather imposing characters like Magneto and Gandalf.
In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself.
The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.
Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing.
You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73 good life'. You're closer to death, and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in.
Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.
Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth.
If I have any audience, they can know that anything I am in, I would go see, with the expectation of being really satisfied.
I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.
I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.
There are a lot of actors - I'm probably one - who are most at home when they're on stage.
Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.