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Growing Up, There Was Only Classical Music On Bbc Radio. We Had To Listen To The American Forces Network In Germany, Which Played Pop Songs, Or The Pirate Radio Boats Off The Coast.

-Michael Caine

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Growing Up, There Was

Michael Caine

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Growing Up, There Was Only Classical Music On Bbc Radio. We Had To Listen To The American Forces Network In Germany, Which Played Pop Songs, Or The Pirate Radio Boats Off The Coast.

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I Spent 30 Years Of My Life Not Being Wanted At All For Films.

In Film, Other Actors' Performances Really Are Not Your Concern. If The Other Actor Isn't Giving You What You Want, Act As Though He Were.

The Standing Ovation Threw Me. ... To Be Held In Such Regard In A Town So Full Of Talent Is Quite Something.

I Don't See Myself As Anything. I Just Wander Around Getting On With My Life.

I Don't Work Very Much, And I Just Sit Here Waiting For A Script That I Can't Refuse - And I'm Not Talking About Money.

You Have To Remember, I Never Became Successful Or Wealthy Till I Was 30.

The First Actor I Ever Saw Was The Lone Ranger. I Thought: "that's What I Want To Do."

It's Funny, People Ask Me, 'what Would You Consider The Most Romantic Track On Your Record Mr Caine?' And I Say 'swollen' By Bent, And They Say 'i Think He's Off His Rocker!'

I'm Trying To Work Only With Established, Respected Directors. I Took A Lot Of Bad Scripts And Worked For A Lot Of Lazy Directors, And It Was Discouraging To Go To The Screenings And See That The Director Had Added Nothing, The Editor Had Added Nothing, There Was Nothing To See.

Anyone Can Write. But Comedy, You've Got To Do Some Writing. You Get One Comedy Script To Every 20 Dramas.

Be Patient.of Course It Will Come. It Took Me Years To Get An Oscar.

In The Sixties, Everyone You Knew Became Famous. My Flatmate Was Terence Stamp. My Barber Was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney Did The Menu In A Restaurant I Went To. I Didn't Know Anyone Unknown Who Didn't Become Famous.

I Enjoy Making People Laugh. The Trick Is To Tell Them Jokes Against Yourself. If You Praise Yourself, Your Stories Aren't Funny.

I Am Often Asked Which Of My Films Has Come Closest To My Own Ideal Of Performance, And I Always Answer, 'educating Rita.'

I Never Listened To The People Who Said I Should Give It Up, Which Is The Main Advice I Got.

Movie Actors Earn Their Living And Learn Their Craft Through Listening And Reacting.

I'm Doing The Next Batman. I Have To Become Obsessed About What Is Offered To Me.

As An Actor, My Attitude Towards Using Of Film Versus Digital Is, If You Have Film, Filmmakers Have To Cut Eventually So You Don't Have To Learn All That Dialogue. With Digital, They Can Just Go On Forever And It's A Nightmare. So, I Like Film - Nice Short Takes.

You Cannot Have One Bathroom. And It Don't Matter How Much You Love Your Wife And Everything, 'cause You Wind Up With No Room At All. You Just Get A Little Corner And You've Got A Toothbrush And Your Paste And A Shaving Brush And A Razor. And You Can Never Get In There. So You Must Have Two Bathrooms. You Really Must. I Think It's Essential.

I Sit Waiting For Things That I Can't Refuse.

I Don't Do It Often, But I Do Cry. I Also Laugh A Lot; People Tell Me I'm Funny And I Do Like To Laugh.

I've Done A Lot Of Radio In My Life. I've Done Radio Plays For The Bbc When I Was Young So I Was Absolutely Used To That Style Of Work, Of Working With The Voice. I Have A Very Distinctive Voice So It's Always Great For Me Because I Open My Mouth And Everybody Knows Who It Is.

80 Percent Of Any Gang Is Not There To Attack Someone. They're There So No One Will Attack Them.

I'm Very, Very Family Oriented. I'm A Big Cook And A Good Connoisseur And I Only Drink Very Good Red Wines Now.

I'm A Frustrated Stand-up Comic. If You Hand Me A Microphone And I Get One Laugh, Then I'll Go On For 20 Minutes.

The First Thing I'll Do If I Want To Look Really Crappy Is, I Don't Wear Any Makeup At All.

No Matter What The Reason, If You Start To Scream And Shout, You Look A Fool, And You Feel A Fool, And You Earn The Disrespect Of Everyone.

My Most Useful Acting Tip Came From My Pal John Wayne. Talk Low, Talk Slow, And Don't Say Too Much.

You've Got To Be Flexible. Directors Do A Massive Amount Of Planning And Homework, And If After All That Your Director Decides To Throw It All Out Of The Window And Shoot Spontaneously, Then You Must Follow His Lead.

I Don't Want To Sound Like Disgusted Of Tunbridge Wells, But I Do Think There Should Be Some Sort Of National Service For Young Men.

I Come From The Slums; I Come From A Hard Background; I Come From A Poor Family; And I Was A Soldier.

I Wear A Baseball Cap All The Time, Which I Would Never Normally Wear, And I Walk Very Fast.

I Just Love To Go Home, No Matter Where I Am, The Most Luxurious Hotel Suite In The World, I Love To Go Home.

My Understanding Of Women Goes Only As Far As The Pleasures.

The Trouble With Women? Elbows.

My Career Is Going Better Now Than When I Was Younger. Now I Get The Part. Back Then, I'd Get The Girl.

If You're Blond, As I Am, And You Have Blond Lashes, You Have To Wear Mascara, Otherwise You're Invisible On Stage.

The Basic Rule Of Human Nature Is That Powerful People Speak Slowly And Subservient People Quickly - Because If They Don't Speak Fast Enough, Nobody Will Listen To Them.

That To Me Is What My Idea Of Film Acting Should Be. There Shouldn't Be Any Acting. You Should Just Be Watching A Real Person.

Growing Up, There Was Only Classical Music On Bbc Radio. We Had To Listen To The American Forces Network In Germany, Which Played Pop Songs, Or The Pirate Radio Boats Off The Coast.

I Heard My First Laughter On Stage, When I Was About 10 Years Old. It Was Gold Pantomime And I Remember I Was Playing Baron Fitznoodle, Who Was The Father Of The Ugly Sisters In "cinderella." And I Walked On And Got A Great Big Laugh And I Thought That Was Fantastic, Until I Looked Down And Found That My Flies Were Open. And So I Always Check My Flies. I Even Check My Flies On Radio.

In England, I Was A Cockney Actor. In America, I Was An Actor.

I Don't Like Getting Up Early In The Morning And Learning All That Stuff. I Work With Offers That I Can't Refuse.

If You Held A Pistol At My Head, I Couldn't Tell You Who They're Going To Vote For Best Actor.

You're Your First Best Audience, Long Before Anybody Else Hears You. So Don't Be An Easy Audience. Keep Asking For More.

When I'm Doing An Accent, You Shouldn't Notice It For A While, If I'm Doing It Right.

I Must Admit, The Only Reason I Joined An Amateur Dramatic Society Is Because I Couldn't Get To Kiss Any Girls - I Was Chasing Girls All The Time - And So I Thought If I Join It, There Might Be Some Love Scenes. And There Was A Particular Girl And I Thought I Might Get To Kiss Amy. I Never Did Get To Kiss Amy But I Did Get To Kiss Elizabeth Taylor, So It Was All Right, A Lot Later.

I'm Not In The Lifetime Achievement Area Yet-i'm Still Battling It Out In The Trenches.

Great Acting Is About Listening To What They Are Saying ....not Waiting To Deliver Your Lines.

I Have A Knack Of Making Villainous People A Little Bit Sympathetic, A Bit Of Fun On Screen.

I've Been In Every Disco In The World. I Saw A Picture Of My Wife Shakira And I Dancing In Studio 54; I Didn't Even Know Someone Had Taken That Picture.

If I See Any Injustice Done, I Have A Big Enough Mouth And The Position To Open Up About It.

Movie Acting Is About Covering The Machinery. Stage Acting Is About Exposing The Machinery. In Cinema, You Should Think The Actor Is Playing Himself, If He's That Good. It Looks Very Easy. It Should. But It's Not, I Assure You.

I'm Every Bourgeois Nightmare - A Cockney With Intelligence And A Million Dollars.

I Won An Academy Award For 'the Cider House Rules,' Playing An American.

I Have Enough Money Not To Do Pictures Ever. I'm Seventy Years Old. I Don't Want To Get Up At 6:30 In The Morning And Learn Ten Pages Of Dialogue To Do With A Bunch Of Creeps I Don't Like. It's Gotta Be Fun For Me.

I've Had Such A Great Time, I'd Like To Come Back As Me - And Do It All Over Again.

I Feel That I Helped The Working Class By Just Saying There Are No Barriers, Which I Consider To Be True.

I Was In Korea. I've Noticed All My Life I See Elderly People Who Have Been Close To Death In An Illness And They're Absolutely Cured And They Say, Now I Know How To Live My Life. I've Seen Death. That Happened To Me When I Was 19. It Was A Terrible, Terrifying Thing. And I Live My Life Like Those People Decided To Do When They Were Old. So, Since I Was 19, I've Had The Most Fun Possible Every Single Day, Even When I Had A Rough Life. It Was The Army Which Taught Me About Life, And The Theater Which Taught Me How Good It Could Be.

I Didn't Know What I Knew. I Wasn't Aware Of What I Knew.

I See Myself As 38, But You Don't Notice It.

I Read Books Like Mad, But I Am Careful To To Let Anything I Read Influence Me.

A Lot Of My Best Parts I've Been The Second Choice For, So You Never Get Too Egotistical About Anything.

I've Been Acting A Long Time, And I Can Play A Cockney Gangster Or A Womanizer In My Sleep Or Standing On My Head. But What I Try To Do Is I Try To Find Characters That Are As Far Away From Me As I Possibly Can And Then Make Them Real. A French Nazi Is About As Far Away From Me As I Can Possibly Get Without Actually Going To Mars Or Something.

Comedy Is Underrepresented In Every Actor's Life, Because It's So Bloody Difficult To Write.

I Admired Marlon Brando As I Grew Up. I Though He Was One Of The Finest Screen Actors Around.

You Don't Retire From The Movies. The Movies Retire You.

...some Men Aren't Looking For Anything Logical, Like Money. They Can't Be Bought, Bullied, Reasoned, Or Negotiated With. Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn.

I Learned About Life Before I Went Into The Theater, Which Is Why I've Been So Happy. I Was A Soldier.

You Get Paid The Same For A Bad Film As You Do For A Good One.

To Be A Movie Star, You Have To Carry A Movie. And To Carry A Movie Where You Play The Title Role Is The Supreme Example.

There's Quite A Lot Of Bad Stuff Written About Me. My Wife Even Says A Lot Of Bad Stuff About Me. But She Is Wonderful.

I Started With The Firm Conviction That When I Came To The End, I Wanted To Be Regretting The Things That I Had Done, Not The Things I Hadn't.

I've Been On Movies Where I Literally Couldn't Hear What The Other Actor Was Saying. It's Very Awkward.

Nobody Did A Campaign For Me. I Was Nominated Out Of The Blue And Won Out Of The Blue. So That Was It.

Obsession Is A Young Man's Game, And My Only Excuse Is That I Never Grew Old.

I Can Never Be The Hero Now. You Have To Be Young And All That Stuff. I Used To Be The Hero.

My Wife Comes With Me On All The Movies, But She Is Not An Appendage To A Film Star Or Anything Like That. She Is A Completely Intertwined Partner. She Is The Other Half Of Me. Also, We're Still Very Much In Love With Each Other. We Always Have Been, We Always Will Be.

I Need A Challenge 'cause I Don't Get The Girl Anymore.

They Use Those Monitors Now, And Sometimes You'll Be Doing A Shot And Then Suddenly You See Yourself On One Of Those Monitors, And I Always Say Turn The Monitor Round, I Don't Want To See Myself On The Monitor. I Never See Myself 'til The Movie's Finished.

Wherever I Live, If There Isn't A Restaurant I Want To Go To Of A Certain Type, Then I Open It. That's All. For Selfish Reasons.

When Becoming A Character, You Have To Steal. Steal Whatever You See. You Can Even Steal From Other Actors' Characterizations; But If You Do, Only Steal From The Best.

Hey, I Always Say: If You Want A Quiet Life, Become A Monk.

About Superman And Batman: The Former Is How America Views Itself, The Latter, Darker Character Is How The Rest Of The World Views America.

At 69, I Got The Girl! And It Wasn't A 68-year-old Girl, Either.

I Don't Have To Work. I Suppose I Should Retire. But I Enjoy Working.

People Say To Me, Why Did You Do Those Films, And I Say, For Money. It Wasn't For Diamond Rings Or Kidney Shaped Swimming Pools In Beverly Hills, It Was In Order To Improve The Lot Of Everyone Around Me.

I Always Say To My Wife, Don't Tell Anyone I Watch This [shows Like The X Factor And Pop Idol], But It Fascinates Me Because I've Done So Many Auditions And Been Knocked Back.

Obsession Is A Young Man’s Game.

You're Never Too Old To Be Crazy.

I Feel Like 35. At 35 You're Old Enough To Know Something And Young Enough To Look Forward To What You Can Do With The Knowledge. So I Stayed At 35!

I Don't Have Any Regrets Because I'm Very Optimistic, And Live Each Day As Though It's The Last.

I Have Never Seen It (jaws 4) But By All Accounts It Is Terrible. However, I Have Seen The House That It Built And It Is Terrific.

The Quiet American Is Anti The People Who Took Them Into The Vietnam War.

Nobody's A Criminal To Himself. I Never Play A Criminal Like A Bad Person.

A Man's Body May Grow Old, But Inside His Spirit Can Still Be As Young And As Restless As Ever.

I Was Watching Cartoons On Television And A Commercial Came On For One Of The Batman Series Where I Played A Butler. And Then My Grandson Looked Up At Me And He Said, "do You Know Batman?" I Said, "yes." He Said, "really," I Said, "yeah." I Said I Know Him Very Well. And He Told All The Boys At School, He Said, "my Grandpa Knows Batman. Does Your Grandpa Know Batman? Ok, No. Mine Does.

Am I A Car Aficionado? No: For Me, Cars Have Always Been Just For Transport. I Didn't Even Know Anyone Who Had A Car Until I Was 14 Or 15.

I Don't Meet Stockbrokers Or Carpenters Or Coal Miners; I Spend All Day With Actors, Composers And Photographers.

I'm Looking For Me To Disappear, And The Acting To Disappear, And All You See Is A Real Person.

In My Day, The Drug Was Alcohol And The Weapon Was A Fist, So It Was Very Sort Of Innocent And Primitive. Now You've Got Drugs, Guns, And Knives, Which Are So Lethal.

Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn

At Age 11, I Went To A Jewish School. I Speak Yiddish. I'm Church Of England Protestant. My Father Was Catholic, And My Mother Was Protestant. My Wife Is A Muslim.

How Can I Change Me To Suit The Script?

If You Go Away On Location For Three Months And Your Wife Stays At Home, You've Made A Whole New Load Of Friends And She's Made A Whole New Load Of Friends And You Get Home And You're Kind Of Strangers.

But The Whole Point Of The Sixties Was That You Had To Take People As They Were. If You Came In With Us You Left Your Class, And Colour, And Religion Behind, That Was What The Sixties Was All About.

I Think It Would Be Great For The Academy To Recognize Old Age.

I Want To Stick Around With The Big Boys. I Don't Want To Be In The Old Folks Home.

I Usually Control The Environment I'm In, But My Control Is Very Quiet And Subtle.

My Father Was A Fish Market Porter. So I Grew Up On Fish, Because He Used To Steal One A Day, I Grew Up On The Very Best Fish That Money Could Buy, 'cause He Only Stole The Good Stuff.

When I Was 6 My Father Went To Fight In The War, So He Was My Big Hero. I Thought He Was The Greatest Thing.

And To Tom Cruise, For If You Had Won This, Your Asking Price Would Have Gone Down So Fast. Do You Have Any Idea What Supporting Actors Get Paid? We Get Only One Trailer, A Small One, In The Back.

Things Are Not Quite What They Seem Always. Don't Start Me On Class, Otherwise You'll Get A Four-hour Lecture.

This Is Your Life, Larry. Learn To Enjoy What You've Got.

I Was Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Imagine Signing That Autograph! You'd Get A Broken Arm. So I Changed My Name To Michael Caine After Humphrey Bogart's 'the Caine Mutiny,' Which Was Playing In The Theater Across From The Telephone Booth Where I Learned That I'd Gotten My First Tv Job.

A Lot Of People Said, Who Do You Think You Are? I Told Them I Know Exactly Who I Am And I'll Tell You Exactly Where I'm Going.

I Don't Have To Work, Really, But I Do Enjoy Working, And I Do Enjoy Getting Paid.

Books Were My Window On The World. Growing Up At The Elephant And Castle, Which Was Very Rough, My Paradise Was The Library.

We Should Vote For The Welfare Of The Country, Not For The Welfare Of The Party.

There Is No Point In Competing With Young Talent...i Just Concentrate On Getting Better Each Day.

Someone Said To Me The Other Day: "well, You're Eventually Going To Live Until 110." And I Said: "well, Who's Going To Keep Me? What Age Do I Retire? 100?" How Are You Going To Live All Those Years And Who Is Going To Keep You Doing It? I Have A Couple Of Grandchildren Now So I'm Banking On Them.

I Had Been Nine Years In The Theatre And Hadn't Had Massive Success. My Only Thing Was I Wanted To Be An Actor And I Didn't Care When, Where, Or How Much For.

I Had An Extraordinary Belief In Myself. For Years People Told Me To Give It Up And Even Though I Was Poverty- Stricken, I Never Thought I Should Give It Up.

I'm The Audience's Representative On Earth.

I Prefer To Remake Flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Was A Remake Of A Flop, And The Quiet American Is A Remake Of A Flop.

There Was A Certain Moment. I Was About 61 - Two, Three Or Four, And I Got A Script. And I Sent It Back To The Producer Saying - "i Don't Wanna Do It. The Part's Too Small." And He Sent It Back To Me, He Said, "you Shouldn't Read The Lover. You Should Read The Father.

I Don't Want To Be An English Actor Doing The Greatest American Accent You've Ever Heard. I Want To Be An American Doing Nothing.

I'd Like It To Be Remembered As You Had Some Fun. We're Only Here [living] For Some Fun. I Think If You Learn Something, All Well And Good, But We're Only Here To Give You Some Fun. Along The Way, You May Find Out Something.

I Didn't Want To Come In The Movie Every So Often, Every 20 Minutes Saying, 'dinner Is Served, Would You Like Coffee?'

As An Actor, I'll Play Anything.

You Don't Sacrifice Your Individuality; You Sacrifice A Lot Of Freedom.

I Think Life Has Got To Develop As You Get Older, And I Don't Want To Be Wandering Along Doing The Same Old Thing. I Want More Out Of Life.

To Me, 'educating Rita' Is The Most Perfect Performance I Could Give Of A Character Who Was As Far Away From Me As You Could Possibly Get And Of All The Films I Have Ever Been In, I Think It May Be The One I Am Most Proud Of.

A Man Should Dress In A Way That You Don't Notice. He Looks Good And You Don't Know Why. But It's The Tailoring, The Materials, And The Clothes.

You Can Write Shorthand And Still Look At The Guy You're Talking To.

I've Never Taken Drugs - If You Take A Drug Of Your Choice, You Get Some Ecstatic Feeling.

I'm Very Much More Choosy Now. I Do Stuff That I Really, Really, Really Like.

You Don't Make Any Money When You're My Age. The Stars Get It All. That's A Lie, Actually.

To Disappear Your Complete Self Into A Character Is Quite Difficult. I've Tried It 85 Times, And I've Succeeded Two Or Three Times.

Ive Read An Awful Lot Of Books, Ive Read Alot Of Awful Books

We Can Only Use British Actors Because Everybody's Got To Talk Exactly The Same.

The American Cinema In General Always Made Stories About Working-class People; The British Rarely Did. Any Person With My Working-class Background Would Be A Villain Or A Comic Cipher, Usually Badly Played, And With A Rotten Accent. There Weren't A Lot Of Guys In England For Me To Look Up To.

I'm Not Tough Anymore, I'm 82.

If You're A Leading Actor You Don't Work With Another Actor. You Work With A Lady.

The Old Guys Like Me Started In The Theatre. I Was In The Theatre For Nine Years.

I'd Never Been In One Of Those Great Big Blockbusters.

Presenting The Oscars Was The Most Nerve-racking Job I Have Ever Done In Show Business. It's Very Much A Live Show: They Have Comedy Writers Waiting In The Wings, And As You Come Off Between Presentations, They Hand You An Appropriate Gag To Tell.

My Own Mentality Is That I've Retired. They Send Me These Scripts And If I Absolutely Have To Do It, Then I Go To Work.

I Was A Repertory Actor, Which Meant That I Did A Play Every Week. I Was A Different Character Every Week; For A Year, I Was Doing 40 Or 50 Characters.

I'll Always Be There Because I'm A Skilled Professional Actor. Whether Or Not I've Any Talent Is Beside The Point.

My Closest Friends Are Roger Moore, Who Is An Actor, Sean Connery, Who Is An Actor, Terry O'neill, Who Is A Photographer, Johnny Gold, Who Was The Boss Of Tramp, And Leslie Bricusse, Who Is A Composer.

For Cider House Rules, I Was Doing A New England Accent.

For Me, The Performance Was Always Playing Different People. And So When I Got Older, Was No Longer The Romantic Leading Movie Star, It Became More And More Interesting For Me, The Characters I Played, You Know?

I Had Been In That Part Of The World As A Soldier In Korea, So I Had Been Interested In Vietnam.

I've Never Been Competitive With Other Actors. I've Been Competitive With Myself And I'm My Own Worst Critic, A Terrible Critic I Am, And Unless I Get Something Right, I Feel Very Unhappy.

Save Your Money. You're Going To Need Twice As Much Money In Your Old Age As You Think.

English Is Clipped In Speech. Texas Is Exactly The Opposite.

I Spent My Life In The Library Reading Books.

In Real Life, I'm Afraid Of Heights - And People Who Get Moral Convictions... Adolf Hitler In London.

When I Was A Young Actor I Was In A Lot Of Film Doing One Day Work And Two Days' Work, And They've Included All Those Titles, Which I Don't Even Remember. I Think I've Played The Lead In About 75 Movies.

I Don't Think Human Beings Are Bad. They're Weak. And That's What Makes 'em Bad.

I Wouldn't Make An Anti-american Film. I'm One Of The Most Pro-american Foreigners I Know. I Love America And Americans.

The Greatest Luxury Is Not Driving. I Didn't Own A Car Until I Was 30, And That Was A Rolls-royce, So It Was Cheaper To Insure A Chauffeur. I Never Want To Drive Again. My Mind Is Always On Other Things. I Hate Parking, And I'm Very Short-tempered And Would Get Road Rage, I'm Sure.

I Regard The Theater As A Woman I Loved Dearly Who Treated Me Like Dirt.

There Are Loads Of Black Actors.you Can't Say: I'm Going To Vote For Him, He's Not Very Good But He's Black, [so] I'll Vote For Him. You've Got To Give A Good Performance.

Maybe It's Time We All Stop Trying To Outsmart The Truth And Let It Have Its Day.

The Best Research For Playing A Drunk Is Being A British Actor For 20 Years.

What A Lot Of People Dont Realize About Gangs, In My Opinion, Is That A Gang Is Not There To Attack You. Eighty Percent Of The People In A Gang Are There To Stop Anyone From Attacking Them. You Join A Gang For Protection, Not To Go Out And Hit Someone.

Funny Things Happen To You In Movies For Silly Reasons.

When You Reach The Top, That's When The Climb Begins.

Be Like A Duck. Calm On The Surface, But Always Paddling Like The Dickens Underneath.

A Lot Of Movie Stars Are Not Great Actors; They're Just Very Good-looking. And When They Start To Age And They Don't Have The Looks Any More, Then It's Over.

My View Of Actors Is That Basically They're All Harmless Lunatics Who'd Be On The Psychiatrist's Couch.

If You're A Movie Actor, You're On Your Own - You Cannot Control The Stage. The Director Controls It.

When It Comes To Politics, I Believe You Have To Cut The Cake So That Everybody Gets A Piece, But At The Same Time, You Have To Keep In Mind That Somebody Has To Make The Cake.

Theater Acting Is An Operation With A Scalpel, Movie Acting Is An Operation With A Laser

Youre Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Doors Off!

I Have Been Rich And I Have Been Poor. I Know Which One I Prefer.

In My Early Days, I Didn't Know What A Good Film Or A Bad Film Was, And I Was Trying To Make Some Money. As It Happens I Was Lucky. I Made Some Good Films.

I Just Try To Play More And More Difficult Roles.

When I Look In The Mirror, I See Someone Who's Happy With How He Looks, Because I Was Never One Of The Handsome Hollywood People. And I've Had Success As I've Gotten Older, Because I'm Able To Play Characters. I No Longer Get The Girl, But I Get The Part.

I've Always Got To Have One Impossible Dream On The Back Burner.

First Of All, I Choose The Great Roles, And If None Of These Come, I Choose The Mediocre Ones, And If They Don't Come, I Choose The Ones That Pay The Rent.

I Never Regret Anything. I Always Said That When I'm Old, I Want To Be Sitting There Regretting The Things That I Did And Not The Things That I Didn't Do; And Now I'm Old, And I Don't Regret Anything! I Had Fun. I Had Fun, And I'm Still Having It.

I've Never Been Out With A Married Woman, Never. I Respect Others' Properties.

Respecting Others

To Be A Movie Star, You Have To Invent Yourself.

One Of The Main Things About Cockney Is, You Speak At Twice The Speed As Americans. Americans Speak Very Slow.

I Never Bring A Role Home With Me. The Moment They Say, 'it's A Wrap,' It's Gone Completely. I'm A Totally Ruthless Professional, And Life Is My Family, Not My Work.

I Learn The Whole Time. I Think It Would Be Dull If I Thought I Was Going To Work And Wouldn't Find Something New. We Always Learn.

If You're A Movie Star, You Get The Girl, You Lose The Girl, And Then You Get Her Back. But If You're A Character Like Me, You Lose The Girl, Then You Get Another One, Then You Get Another One, Then You Lose Them All, Then You Lose Your Life.

Don't Sit As If You Have Nothing To Say. You Should Be Bursting With Things To Say. You Just Choose At This Particular Place And Time, Not To Say Them.

Hollywood Is A Cross Between A Health Farm, A Recreation Center And An Insane Asylum. It's A Company Town, And I Happen To Like The Company!

Lunatic Asylums

No English Director Would've Cast Me As An Officer, I Promise You. Not One.

I've Always Played Very Human Sort Of Characters.

There's Only Two Things I Hate In This World. People Who Are Intolerant Of Other People's Cultures And The Dutch.

It's Vital To Have Your Own Space So You Aren't Constantly In Each Other's Pockets.

My Dialogue Coach Said To Do A Texas Accent, You Lean On The Next Word, And That Was The Clue To Me.

My Problem Was That I Was Blond. There Were No Heroes With Blond Hair. Robert Taylor And Henry Fonda, They All Had Dark Hair. The Only One I Found Was Van Johnson, Who Wasn't Too Cool. He Was A Nice, Homely American Boy. So I Created My Own Image. It Worked.

I've Done My Job And I've Got The Picture Out There, And I'm Very Happy With It.

Just Because I Have Made A Point Of Never Losing My Accent It Doesn't Mean I'm An Eel-and-pie Yob.

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