"I stopped appearing as Dracula in 1972 because in my opinion the presentation of the character had deteriorated to such an extent, particularly bringing him into the contemporary day and age, that it really no longer had any meaning." "Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff didn't like the word "horror". They, like I, went for the French description: "the theatre of the fantastique"." "There are many vampires in the world today - you only have to think of the film business." "In Britain, any degree of success is met with envy and resentment." (On his friendship with Peter Cushing) "I don't want to sound gloomy, but, at some point of your lives, every one of you will notice that you have in your life one person, one friend whom you love and care for very much. That person is so close to you that you are able to share some things only with him. For example, you can call that friend, and from the very first maniacal laugh or some other joke you will know who is at the other end of that line. We used to do that with him so often. And then when that person is gone, there will be nothing like that in your life ever again". QU:(On doing Military Intelligence in WW2) When people say to me, you know, were you in this? Were you in that? Did you work in this? Did you work in that? I always used to say 'Can you keep a secret?' And they would say 'Yes, yes' and I would say "So can I." Some of the films I've been in I regret making. I got conned into making these pictures in almost every case by people who lied to me. Some years ago I got a call from my producers saying that they were sending me a script and that five very distinguished American actors were also going to be in the film. Actors like José Ferrer, Dean Jagger and John Carradine. So I thought, "Well, that's alright by me". But it turned out it was a complete lie. Appropriately, the film was called End of the World. "I've seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I've become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise we would never have won." "When you're involved in a war it's the old saying 'if your name's written on the bullet, there's nothing you can do about it'. So you just banished it from your mind. Of course I was scared on some occasions and anyone who says they aren't scared during an operation probably isn't telling the truth. I know about six people who had no fear. Literally none. Whether that was due to a lack of imagination or because they'd conquered it, I don't know. In fact one was Iain Duncan Smith's father, who was one of my closest friends. But during a war, people are taught to kill and they have the blessings of the authorities to do so, so if it's your life or somebody else's, you want to be quite sure it's not yours." "One should try anything he can in his career, except folkdance and incest" - on the Rhapsody DVD documentary special edition of "The dark secret". [Criticizing Hollywood's obsession with youth]: "The problem today, and I think it's a very dangerous one for the people concerned, is that there are quite large numbers of very young men and women from 18 to 30, and they are playing very large parts in huge films and they simply, through no fault of their own, don't have the background and the experience and the knowledge to pull if off. And it's dangerous for them because if they are in one failure after another, sooner or later people are going to say, 'Well, he may have a pretty face but he's not bringing the public in.' So many of these good-looking - sometimes even pretty - boys and girls are getting these good roles and it's not fair on them. At some point it's going to catch up." "In my opinion - and I think I know as much, if not more about Bond than anyone, particularly about the characters on whom Ian told me Bond was based, Pierce Brosnan was by far the best and closest to the character." "I've always acknowledged my debt to Hammer. I've always said I'm very grateful to them. They gave me this great opportunity, made me a well-known face all over the world for which I am profoundly grateful." (on the technology used to film Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith): The advances have been phenomenal. There is a monitor on the camera there that is static, a monitor on the crane, and all these monitors scattered all over the place. What he's seeing is what you will see when you see the movie.