Acting is learnt, not taught.

I am the king of old school romance.

Film industry people don't read books.

I am never comfortable working with stars.

Acting is fun, but directing is very stressful.

I have the highest regard for the police forces.

Don't opt for acting as an escape from education.

I never go to film festivals. I am allergic to them.

Given a choice, I prefer directing a play to a film.

Hindi cinema has only one religion, and that's money.

I do what work I get. I'm disappointed half the time.

I am from a place called Sardhana, which is near Meerut.

Finally, I have realised that it is important to look good.

Playing the good guy is boring. I love twisted, flawed characters.

'Macbeth,' I am ambivalent about. I don't like that play, in fact.

I have done practically everything that I wanted to do in my life.

Unfortunately, in our country, crying is mistaken for good acting.

Learning a craft is up to you, whether you are doing theatre or movies.

I have had enough of an interesting life to not embellish it in any way.

No actor can give his best performance without the help of the director.

Humans are the only ones who are the custodians of other people's morals.

Granted, patriotism is not a tonic that can be forced down people's throats.

To me, the most important elements in a theatre are the actors and the texts.

The only serious function films can serve is to act as a record of their times.

When we finally become total slaves of mobile phones, then maybe theatre will die.

'Bombay Boys' is among my favourite movies and my favourite performance of myself.

I was lucky to land up in Mumbai when serious cinema was just beginning to flower.

When I see an emotion being enacted by a great actor, I always feel I can never do that.

Nowhere else, perhaps, is the Quran recited so much and understood so little as in India.

People think I am joking when I say my favourite actors are Shammi Kapoor and Dara Singh.

I can say with pride that I have a brother who served with distinction in the Indian Army.

It would be impossible to find an actor to portray Om Puri, so I wouldn't even attempt it.

I am hard put to think of a single positive thing that commercial Hindi cinema has achieved.

It's a blessing to stay a child all your life - pretend to be this and that. And get paid for it.

I don't look at my work as an avenue for generating more work. For me, my work itself is sufficient.

What drew me into being an actor was that I never got cast in the school plays - and it used to kill me.

A family business in cinema is not necessarily creative. It is generally about prolonging your family fortune.

It's completely beyond comprehension that you just can't say anything without offending somebody or the other.

You can't make a film for your personal satisfaction. That is why I detest the cinema of people like Mani Kaul.

The magic of theatre is how much can you stimulate the mind of the audience, not how many illusions you can create.

I had many doubts while writing my autobiography. I wasn't sure if anyone would be interested to read about my life.

My dream is to produce a generation of actors who realise what the function of an actor in a movie is supposed to be.

The film industry does not interest me greatly. The people, I don't mingle with them much. I meet them when I have to.

I have gone into every project with the same enthusiasm and the same hope, but some have worked out, and some haven't.

Acting is no longer a taboo. The stigma has gone because people have realised that it's a perfectly valid career choice.

I don't scoff at the desire to make good movies. I scoff at the quality at poseurs masquerading as masters of the medium.

The stuff that is done on Broadway is hardly theatre. It is part magic show, part rock concert, and part conjuring things.

When my bank balance runs low, then I sign a big Bollywood monstrous movie, and I make sure that I am safe for the next few years.

I am totally for first timers. I always hear them seriously. I have done so many films with first timers, and I've never regretted it.

It is always a pleasure to be directed by an actor because they know the scene from the actor's perspective, too. That's an advantage.

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