Happy Birthday Christopher Lee!

My favourite country is Finland because once you get to a certain point, you can drive for hours without seeing a single person. I love peace and quiet - something I don't get very often.

One of the first things a British visitor to Southern California discovers is that he must have a car. Freeways. Bad public transport. I took driving lessons.

When I was very young - around the age of nine - my family used to go to a house in Somerset that my stepfather rented every summer. There was fishing, lakes and riding.

Before 'Lord of the Rings,' some people would have just classed Peter Jackson as a horror director. But there is a mind there.

I did play Ramses II once, who lived to be 91 and had 120 children, but he died 4,000 years ago.

I didn't want to be known as a man who only made horror films. I made some - very few.

I haven't done lots of horror.

I associate heavy metal with fantasy because of the tremendous power that the music delivers.

'The Impossible Dream' is, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs ever written. Here is a man, an old man, a very old man full of daring, bravery, courage, determination, romanticism and dreams.

I'm much softer than people think. I don't present to the world an emotional face. I'm pretty good at self-control, but I am easily moved.

To be a legend, you've either got to be dead or excessively old!

There was a gap of seven years between the first and second Dracula movies. In the second one as everybody knows, I didn't speak, because I said I couldn't say the lines.

A whole new career opened up for me when I was in 'Lord Of The Rings' and 'Star Wars.'

Comedy is the most difficult thing to do. Easily the most difficult.

Every actor has to make terrible films from time to time, but the trick is never to be terrible in them.

I thought that people should know about the dangers of Satanism, and diabolism does exist - there's no question about it.

If I had any deadly secrets, I wouldn't still be alive.

It's what you don't see that keeps you on the edge of your seat in any kind of film - leave it to the imagination of the viewer.

Let's just say I was in Special Forces and leave it at that. People can read into that what they like.

Somebody once asked me how I found Peter Jackson, and I said: 'Well, I parted his hair, and there he was.'

The saddest country I went to was Romania, years ago, during Ceausescu's rule.

There are many vampires in the world today... you only have to think of the film business.

We don't always get the kind of work we want, but we always have a choice of whether to do it with good grace or not.

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.

I don't really like long flights any more - I find them too tiring. Flying always involves the same things these days - huge crowds at airports, waiting around, late take-offs, weather problems, and so on. I don't really enjoy travelling. I don't imagine anyone does except young children.