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I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It. I Think We Ask Too Many Questions Of Ourselves. We Make Too Much Importance Of Stuff. But I Do Say To Actors When I Have Taught In Classes, Or When I Sometimes Do A Talk To A Group. I'll Say, “if I Never Acted Again, The World Wouldn't Stop, Nor Would It Stop If I Didn't Stop Acting. That's How Important It Is. I Know It [seems] Important When You're Young. But I Say, “lighten Up. Don't Take It All So Seriously.” All The Gurus And Teachers Will Take Your Money And Run.

-Anthony Hopkins

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I Don't Know What

Anthony Hopkins

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I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It. I Think We Ask Too Many Questions Of Ourselves. We Make Too Much Importance Of Stuff. But I Do Say To Actors When I Have Taught In Classes, Or When I Sometimes Do A Talk To A Group. I'll Say, “if I Never Acted Again, The World Wouldn't Stop, Nor Would It Stop If I Didn't Stop Acting. That's How Important It Is. I Know It [seems] Important When You're Young. But I Say, “lighten Up. Don't Take It All So Seriously.” All The Gurus And Teachers Will Take Your Money And Run.

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Danger Is The Spice Of Life And You’ve Got To Take A Risk Now And Then…that’s What Makes Life Worthwhile.

Oh, The Truth, Oh Yeah, Lot Of Trouble That Got Us Into, Didn't It, Over The Last Maybe Thousand Years? Hitler Knew The Truth, So Did Stalin, So Did Mao Zedong, So Did The Inquisition. They All Knew The Truth And That Caused Such Horror. Certainty Is The Enemy.

I Would Like To Go Back To Wales. I'm Obsessed With My Childhood And At Least Three Times A Week Dream I Am Back There.

There Is Nothing To Be Scared Of In Movies. It's A Bit Scarier Going On Stage.

When I Was A Young Guy, I Knew Everything. Now I Know Very Little. I Know Less And Less As The Time Goes On.

I Love The Hour In Makeup. It Gives You Time To Think And Have A Cup Of Coffee. It's My Favorite Part Of The Day.

No Expectations. Ask Nothing, Expect Nothing And Accept Everything, And Life Is Very Well.

As A Welshman That Can't Sing, I Never Feel More Proud To Be Welsh Than When I Hear The Treorchy Male Choir - The Master Choir Of Them All. If I Could Sing I Would Apply For Membership Myself.

Sometimes I Feel Tired And Think I Ought To Give It Up, I Don't Want To Just Retire. No, I Enjoy It All And You Just Keep Going Until The Day Comes When You Can't Do It Anymore. And That's What I Want To Do.

I Wanted To Be A Musician But I Didn't Have The Talent For It, So I Decided I Wanted To Be Famous, So I Became An Actor.

It Was A Challenge, To Work With Oliver Stone.

I've Always Been Hopeless At Everything When I Was A Kid. That's Why I Became An Actor - 'cause I Couldn't Do Anything Else.

When You Are At The Right Age To Play Hamlet You Are Still To Young And Immature To Play It. It Is Much Later, When You Get The Life Experience And The Emotional Power, That You Understand Hamlet Or Macbeth.

Well, Everyone Likes Movies When They're A Little Kid.

I’m Not Being Cynical, But When You’re Doing A Movie You Have A Number Of Choices As An Actor. Then You See It All Cut Together And All Of Those Precious Little Pieces You Put In Are Maybe On The Cutting Room Floor. So, You Don’t Have That Much Control. You Have Very Little Control, In Fact.

I Don't Know Why They Gave Me A Knighthood - Though It's Very Nice Of Them - But I Only Ever Use The Title In The U.s. The Americans Insist On It And Get Offended If I Don't.

If You Don't Follow Through On Your Dreams, You Might As Well Be A Vegetable.

I've Felt Like An Outsider All My Life. It Comes From My Mother, Who Always Felt Like An Outsider In My Father's Family. She Was A Powerful Woman, And She Motivated My Father.

I Like To Work. I Don't Like To Disrupt My Equilibrium. I Don't Like To Change My Head. I'd Rather Be A Third-rate Actor. It's A Job, And I'm Dedicated In My Way. I Enjoy It. I'm Serious About It. But If It Doesn't Come Off, I'm Not Going To Die.

Shakespeare's So Bloody Difficult, And I Don't Like Failure. You Can Fail On Film, But There's Nobody Actually There In The Flesh To Watch You Failing.

On His Hannibal Lector Mask: I've Got It At Home. I Wear It To Bed Every Night.

I Worked With Lawrence Olivier Some Years Ago. He Was A Great Mentor.

I Spent Two Years In The Military Service, Then I Trudged Around In Repertory For Quite A While. I Somehow Wound Up At The National Theatre, Though, And Then I Was Definitely On My Way.

My Weak Spot Is Laziness. Oh, I Have A Lot Of Weak Spots: Cookies, Croissants.

I Think The First British Actor Who Really Worked Well In Cinema Was Albert Finney. He Was A Back-street Marlon Brando. He Brought A Great Wittiness And Power To The Screen. The Best Actor We've Had.

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Hitchcock Was Such A Master Of Putting On Screen Things That Made You Uneasy. Somebody Once Asked Him What Frightened Him Most, And He Said The Police. He Came From A Poor Background. I Think He Understood Those Fears.

I Was Hell Bent On Destruction... It Was Like Being Possessed By A Demon.

I Love To Read, And So I've Been Reading Everything I Can, Not Intensely, But I Love To Read So I Read "origin Of Species" By Darwin And I Can't Make Head Or Tail Of E=mc Squared By Einstein, But I Try To Baffle My Way Through That.

There Are People Who Are Convinced Supernatural Forces Are At Work, But I've No Idea. I Suspect 'possession' Might Be A Psychological Thing, Like Schizophrenia. We All Think We Know Things, But We Don't Know A Damn Thing. Whether God Exists, Why We're Here... Nobody Really Knows Any Of It.

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Living With Reality Is A Very Good Trick, It Gives You Tremendous Freedom And It Changes The Structure Of The Molecules Of Your Soul By Living With Reality Because You Don't Expect Anything Anymore. Which Is A Weird Paradox.

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By Giving Up 'the Need' And 'the Want', Things Begin To Happen For You

People Ask, 'should I Call You Sir Hopkins?' But I Say, 'no. Call Me Tony,' Because It's Too Much Of A Lift-up.

When I Direct I Try To Keep It A Unique Design Of My Own. Naturally You're Influenced.

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I'm More And More Convinced That Life Is A Dream. What Has Happened To Me Is Surely A Dream.

I Remember Coming To New York, In 1974 To Do A Play Here Called Equis. And I Remember The First Morning Getting Up And Walking Around The Streets And I Thought, "i'm Home." I Felt Really At Peace Here.

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You Still Wake Up Sometimes. You Wake Up In The Dark And Hear The Screaming Of The Lambs.

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When People Call Me Sir Anthony I Just Think Oh, That's A Bit Odd. But I'm Not Cynical About It. Um, I Just Feel More Comfortable Being Called Tony Or Mr. Hopkins, Whatever Name I'm Called.

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Pleasant Surprises

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I Learn Poetry, Learn Text, And That Really Keeps You Alive.

I Don't Want To Be Anything Else Other Than What I Am. I Can Say That With Passion. No Regrets.

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We Are Dying From Overthinking. We Are Slowly Killing Ourselves By Thinking About Everything. Think. Think. Think. You Can Never Trust The Human Mind Anyway. It's A Death Trap.

I Don't Have A Vast Longing For The Stage.

It Created In Me A Yearning For All That Is Wide And Open And Expansive. Something That Will Never Allow Me To Fit In In My Own Country, With Its Narrow Towns And Narrow Roads And Narrow Kindnesses And Narrow Reprimands.

I Always Liked To Take The Plunge, You Know, I'd Jump In At The Deep End And Hope That I'd Find Land Somehow, Or Hope I'd Float Or Survive. That's More Or Less The Way I've Gone Through My Life.

I've Had No contact With My Daughter For Years. That's Her Choice. Anyway, You Move On. If People Don't Want To Bother With Me, Fine. You Know, God Bless Them, And Move On.

In The Theatre, People Talk. Talk, Talk Until The Cows Come Home About Journeys Of Discovery And About What Hazlitt Thought Of A Line Of Shakespeare. I Can't Stand It.

I Don't Have Any [favourite Role]. I'm Just A Working Actor.

My Weak Spot Is Laziness. I Have A Lot Of Weak Spots - Cookies, Croissants; My Wife Is Always Lecturing Me About This, I Tend To Put It All Down As Habit Or It's Just Acting.

I Always Distrust The Word Art When It Is Applied To Acting.

It's Very Difficult To Liberate Yourself From What You've Learned. You Know It's Almost Impossible Because You Learn In Order To Survive.

I Don't Mind Being A Commodity. It's Given Me A Good Life.

I Am Able To Play Monsters Well. I Understand Monsters. I Understand Madmen.

I Know That Some Actors And Directors Like To Have Intensity On Set. I Don't, Particularly. Certainly, If They Want That, That's Fine, But I Can't Work Like That.

I Was Called 'dumbo,' Like The Elephant, As A Child Because I Couldn't Understand Things At School.

Try Not To Be Concerned With It. It's A Spiritual Thing. Don't Look For The Results, Don't Live In The Payoff. Live In The Moment Which Is A Spiritual Principle. Live In The Moment And Let The Results Take Care Of Themselves. It's In The Hands Of God. The Rest Is All Ego. And I Have Learned, Over The Years, It's Got Nothing To Do With Me. As My Life Is None Of My Business.

I Said Once That If They Gave Me Enough Money To Read The Phone Book, I'd Do It. I Live In A Total State Of Non-expectation. I Don't Expect Things, And I Keep My Expectations Very Low About Everything.

I Have No Illusions About My Position In This World As An Actor Or Anything Like That. I'm Very Realistic. Reality Is A Very Liberating Thing.

The Reward Is In The Doing Of It.

My Life Turned Out To Be Beyond My Greatest Dreams.

I Think Doubt Is A Very Healthy Way To Live.

You Have To Have Humor. If You Don't Have Humor And You Take Yourself Seriously, You're Dead In The Water. You Have To Be Jostled. I Love It. You've Gotta Have A Laugh. It's Better Than Working For A Living.

Working For A Living

How Do You Play Hannibal Lector? Well Just Don't Move. Scare People By Being Still.

I Enjoy Painting. I Don't Know If I'm Good At It, But I Paint. I Paint Very Quickly.

We're All Caught Up In Circumstances, And We're All Good And Evil. When You're Really Hungry, For Instance, You'll Do Anything To Survive. I Think The Most Evil Thing - Well, Maybe That's Too Strong - But Certainly A Very Evil Thing Is Judgment, The Sin Of Ignorance.

People Don't Always Tell You What They Are Thinking. They Just See To It That You Don't Advance In Life.

We All Dream. We Dream Vividly, Depending On Our Nature. Our Existence Is Beyond Our Explanation, Whether We Believe In God Or We Have Religion Or We're Atheist.

I Think All Those Actors From That Generation, Like Bogart - They Were Wonderful Actors. They Didn't Act. They Just Came On And They Did It, And The Characters Were Wonderful.

I Don't Waste Time Being Soft. I'm Not Cold, But I Don't Like Being, Wasting My Time With-life's Too Short.

I'm One Of The Slowest Drivers On The Road. I Mosey Along. If You're Doing Anything Too Fast, Including Living Life Too Fast, That Creates Sudden Death. If I Have To Be Somewhere On Time, I Make Sure I Leave Early Enough.

You Relax Within The Verse. You Realize The Structure Of The Verse And Relax Into It. It's Like Swimming. Or Riding A Bike. You Can't Make It Sound Real If You Are Thinking It Through As You Go. You Can't Think Through Shakespeare, You Have To Speak It. And Listen To The Rhythm Of It And Then It Takes You Over. And To Make It Sound Real You Speak As If You Believe It. Don't Act It. Just Be It.

If You Don't Go When You Want To Go, When You Do Go, You'll Find You've Gone.

People Ask Me How Did You Choose The Part And How Did You Prepare For This Work? I Just Learned The Lines And Showed Up; I Don't Know What Else To Say Because That's All I Know How To Do.

I Was Born In The Same Town As Richard Burton, The Actor, And I Saw Him, He Used To Come - He And His Wife Drove By In The Car In My Father's Shop And Burton Would Come Home From Hollywood And Ask Him For His Autograph, And I Thought, I Want To Be Like Him. And That's All I Said To Myself, I Want To Be Like That. I Want To Get Out Of This Environment Of My Own Empty Mind.

I Just Learn My Lines, Go On Set. Do My Preparation, Whatever That Is. Have A Cup Of Coffee. Say Hello To Everyone. And Be Friendly. "action" - And Then Do It.

I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It.

I'll Do Anything To Keep Everyone Laughing. Things Get Too Intense On Film Sets. I Remember On The Elephant Man, I Used To Imitate A Cat Without Moving My Lips. David Lynch Would Say, "cut! Sorry, We've Got A Noise Somewhere On Set." Everyone Would Be Looking Around For This Cat.

You Look Closely Enough, You'll Find That Everything Has A Weak Spot Where It Can Break, Sooner Or Later.

I Wanted Revenge; I Wanted To Dance On The Graves Of A Few People Who Made Me Unhappy. It's A Pretty Infantile Way To Go Through Life - I'll Show Them - But I've Done It, And I've Got More Than I Ever Dreamed Of.

I Worked At The Steel Company Of Wales When I Was 17. My Job Was To Supply Tools To The Guys Working The Blast Furnaces.

I Can't Stand Directors Who Try To Micro-manage Everything. When It Happens These Days I Just Walk Off Set, Saying If They Don't Like The Way I'm Doing It They Can Get Someone Else.

When You Begin To Believe You Have License Because You Are A Special Person Breathing Special Oxygen, That's When You're In Big Trouble. That's The Road To Insanity. And A Lot Of People In The Studios Are Like That. They Believe That They Are Special. I Do Think Actors Are Blessed, Or Cursed, With Maybe A Slightly Heightened Awareness, Which You Have To Use.

I Love Roller Coasters. I Don't Get A Chance Often, But I've Gone To Magic Mountain And Gone On The Rides. I Love Roller Coasters.

I Tried Acting, Liked It, And Stuck With It. I Saw It As The Way I Would Keep That Promise To Myself Of Getting Back At Those Who Had Made My School Life A Misery.

When You're Young, You're Very Insecure. And If I Could Learn, If I Could Revisit My Own Past I Could Say To Myself, Don't Think Too Much, Just Get On And Do It.

I Wouldn't Use The Word 'scared' For My Role As Hitchcock, But It Was My Most Insecure. Taking On Such A Formidable, Giant Personality Such As Hitchcock; He Was One Of The Great Geniuses Of World Cinema. Sheer Genius.

Acting Is Constricted Because You Have The Lines. But I Improvise With It And What I Learn On The Set. I Improvise Rhythms And Just Changes.

I Think Julianne Moore Is Very, Very Good. I've Worked With Her. We Did Surviving Picasso. I Remember One Scene We Did Together. She Had To Have A Nervous, A Mental, Breakdown In This One Scene. I Didn't Have Many Lines. I Just Had To Make Sure I Knew I Came In On Cue All Right. And I Was Just Watching Her Walking Though The Rehearsal. I Thought I Know What She's Doing, "this Is Going To Be Terrific." So They Said, "are You Ready" And She Said, "yeah," "ok, Roll The Camera." And All In One Take.

I Play Music - I Write My Own Music, But I Play Music, Just Background Music Really, And Just Let It Happen.

And I Love A Scary Movie. It Makes Your Toes Curl And It's Not You Going Through It.

Acting Is A Creative Process, And Directing And Music. I Think Creative People - And I Take Myself As A Creative Person And It Doesn't Mean You Have To Be An Actor, A Musician, Or A Painter - But I Think If You Are In A Creative Profession Or A Creative Business You Do Have A Heightened Awareness.

Certainty Is The Enemy Of Mankind. If You're Certain About Everything, You Have The Inquisition, You Have Nazis And You Have - That Certainty Is Something To Be Guarded About.

We're Just Blades Of Grass, And When We Go, We Go, We Never Come Back; One Life . . . Maybe That's True. But I Tend To Believe That This Is Not All There Is. Because My Life Has Been Like A Shadow Of Something Deeper. And I've Experienced That Many Times.

Blades Of Grass

I Don't Push My Luck. I Don't Worry About The Results And Therefore Everything Seems To Work Out Well. That's Something I've Learnt Over The Years. The Whole Thing About The Acting Business Is That It's A Hit-or-miss Game So I Keep My Distance From It.

The Movie Industry Is Full Of Crazy People Who Think That They Are God.

I Do My Job, And I Do What I’m Paid To Do And I’m Always Prepared. I Prepare By Learning The Text So Well That When I Show Up, I’m Relaxed And The Performance Sort Of Happens. Now Whether That’s Good Or Bad, I Don’t Know... Whatever I Say Is Going To Sound Very Egocentric And Self Centered Anyway So I’d Better Shut Up.

I Am Not Very Good With Relationships. With Anyone. I Can't Be Locked Up With Anyone For Too Long.

I Know That The Arts Are Important. I'm Not Denying That, But I Can't Associate Myself With All The Claptrap That Goes On Around It.

I'm Very Much A Loner. I Don't Like Long Relationships With People And I Always Keep People At A Distance.

My Life Has Been A Kind Of Mystery To Me. By All My Logical, Linear Thinking I Started Out In School As A Little Boy, I Didn't Have A Clue About Anything. What They Were Talking About In School, Couldn't Play Sports, Couldn't Learn, And I Was Bottom Of The Class.

I Just Wanted To Be A Composer; I Became An Actor By Default, Really. I Got A Scholarship To A College Of Music And Drama, Hoping To Take A Scholarship In Music. But I Ended Up As An Acting Student, So I've Stuck With That For The Last 50-odd Years.

I Have A Punishing Workout Regimen. Every Day I Do 3 Minutes On A Treadmill, Then I Lie Down, Drink A Glass Of Vodka And Smoke A Cigarette.

Getting Old Ain't For The Faint Of Heart.

The Magical, Supernatural Force That Is With Us Every Second Is Time. We Can't Even Comprehend It. It's Such An Illusion, It's Such A Strange Thing.

Supernatural Forces

That's What Happens If You Don't Address The Darkness In You. You Become Repressed And Depressed And Suicidal.

The Art Of Acting Is Not To Act. Once You Show Them More, What You Show Them, In Fact Is Bad Acting.

Working With Katherine Hepburn, She Said To Me, "don't Act." She Said, "read The Lines. Just Be. Just Speak The Lines." I Said, "okay." She Said, "you Look Good. You Got A Good Pair Of Shoulders, You Got A Good Head, Good Face."

Life's Too Short To Deal With Other People's Insecurities.

I Could Stay Making Nice Safe Bbc Movies For The Rest Of My Life, So I Decided To Risk It. It Was A Challenge, To Work With Oliver Stone.

I've Got A Great Sense Of Humor.

I Always Had A Knack For Improvisation. I Can Write Down The Notes I Play, But Never Really Had A Proper Academic Musical Background. I Suppose I'm Blessed And Cursed By The Fact I Have That Freedom.

Ryan Gosling. He Was A Good Kid, Good Actor. I Like Him Very Much. What Was The Name Of The Movie? I've Forgotten It. Fracture.

I Worked With Steven Spielberg On Amistad... He Seemed So Very Secure In Himself That He Let Me Do Things.

Acting Is Just A Process Of Relaxation, Actually. Knowing The Text So Well And Trusting That The Instinct And The Subconscious Mind, Whatever You Want To Call It, Is Going To Take Over.

I Visualized A Lot Of Things Happening To Me, Because I Was A Lonely Kid Because I Didn't Understand Anything About School.

Once You Accept The Fact That There's Nothing To Fear, You Drill Into The Primal Oil Well. I Believe When We Do Things Without Fear, We Can Do Anything. As Long As You Don't Worry About The Consequences.

We Are Fascinated By The Darkness In Ourselves, We Are Fascinated By The Shadow, We Are Fascinated By The Bogeyman.

What I Do Is Just Go Over And Over And Over My Lines And Learn The Script So Well That I Can Just Be Easy And Relaxed. That's The Way I Always Work.

My Father Wasn't A Cruel Man. And I Loved Him. But He Was A Pretty Tough Character. His Own Father Was Even Tougher - One Of Those Victorians, Hard As Iron - But My Dad Was Tough Enough.

I Never Make Conscious Decisions. If My Agent Says To Me, "it's A Good Script," I'll Do It. I Don't Plan. I've Got A Lot Of Things To Do. I'm At The Roulette Table And My Luck Seems To Be Running At The Moment. I Might As Well Stay There Until It Runs Out.

I Thought I Did Play One Villain, Hitler, [who Is] Like Lecter In Some Ways, But He's A Mythical Figure, Anyway.

My Philosophy Is: It's None Of My Business What People Say Of Me And Think Of Me. I Am What I Am, And I Do What I Do. I Expect Nothing And Accept Everything. And It Makes Life So Much Easier.

I'm Most Suspicious Of Scripts That Have A Lot Of Stage Direction At The Top Of The Page Sunrise Over The Desert And Masses Of A Whole Essay Before You Get To The Dialogue.

The Knighthood Was A Tremendous Honour, I Don't Dismiss It. But I Feel Embarrassed By The Flowery, Theatrical Stuff That Goes With Being An Actor.

I Drank A Lot, But I Wouldn't Have Missed It. I Look Back On It As Sort Of Dreary Enjoyment, Because I Don't Have To Be There Anymore.

Israel Means War And Destruction And We Americans Are Behind This War And I Am Ashamed Of Being American.

Acting's Entertainment. It's Not Brain Surgery.

Guilt Is The Thief Of Life.

Why Love, If Losing Hurts So Much? I Have No Answers Anymore: Only The Life I Have Lived... The Pain Now Is Part Of The Happiness Then.

I Think The Healthy Way To Live Is To Make Friends With The Beast Inside Oneself, And That Means Not The Beast But The Shadow. The Dark Side Of One's Nature. Have Fun With It And You Know, Is To Accept Everything About Ourselves.

My Weak Spot Is That I Don't Like Analyzing So I Tend To Be A Bit Lazy; I Tend To Get Bored Quickly, Which Means I Must Be Boring.

I Love Life Because What More Is There?

I'm Composing And Writing Music.

I Still Don't Know What The Film Was About Because All I Remember Is A Whole Lot Of Technical Dialogue About A Body In A Suitcase.

I Have No Education, I Have No Academic Background In Painting Or In Music, But I Write Music And I Compose Music And I Write And I Sell Paintings, And My Rule Is, Well, They Can't Arrest Me.

I'm Just An Actor. It's The Way The Script Is Written, And It's Easy. I Don't Have Think About It. When You Receive The Script, You Know Pretty Well How To Play It, Apart From Little Technicalities Like The Accent.

Actors I Admire? Ed Harris, Or Course, I Think He's Terrific; Because I Know He Always Had To Fight Being What He Looked Like A Lot, But I Think He's A Terrific Actor.

I've Got No Need To Prove To Myself That I Can Do Shakespeare. I've Done It.

I Read A Lot, That's My Main Hobby. I've Got An Ipad Which I Store Books On And I Read Voraciously. I'm A Slow Reader But I'm Obsessive. I Make References, Underline Things, Cross-reference. I'm An Autodidact.

What A Glorious Night. Every Face I See Is A Memory. It May Not Be A Perfectly Perfect Memory. Sometimes We Had Our Ups And Downs. But We're All Together And You're Mine For A Night. And I'm Going To Break Precedent And Tell You My One-candle Wish...that You Would Have A Life As Lucky As Mine, Where You Can Wake Up One Morning And Say, 'i Don't Want Anything More'. Sixty-five Years. Don't They Go By In A Blink?

I Know How To Be Strong. I Know How To Be Ruthless. It's Part Of My Nature. I Wouldn't Be An Actor If I Wasn't.

I'm The Slowest Driver In The World.

I Don't Know What Acting Is, But I Enjoy It. I Think We Ask Too Many Questions Of Ourselves. We Make Too Much Importance Of Stuff. But I Do Say To Actors When I Have Taught In Classes, Or When I Sometimes Do A Talk To A Group. I'll Say, “if I Never Acted Again, The World Wouldn't Stop, Nor Would It Stop If I Didn't Stop Acting. That's How Important It Is. I Know It [seems] Important When You're Young. But I Say, “lighten Up. Don't Take It All So Seriously.” All The Gurus And Teachers Will Take Your Money And Run.

Relish Everything That's Inside Of You, The Imperfections, The Darkness, The Richness And Light And Everything. And That Makes For A Full Life.

Richness Of Life

We Have A Boesendorfer Piano That I Play Every Day. It Keeps My Brain And My Fingers Active.

My Philosophy Is: It's None Of My Business What People Say Of Me And Think Of Me.

I Came Here In 1974 To Do A Play, And Then I Went To L.a. I Really Like Living In America. I Feel More At Home Here Than Anywhere Else.

I Don't Like Mushiness. I'm A Very Emotional Person But I Hate Sentimentality. I Don't Like Great Demonstrations Of Emotion. But As I'm Getting Older, I'm Getting Much More Open About All That.

If You're In A Successful Play And The Play Is Working Well - I Mean Successful Because The Audiences Like It, The Audiences Respond Well - It's A Pleasure.

I'd Like To Wake Up And Look Like Brad Pitt In The Morning, But I Don't. I Look In The Mirror, And I See Me.

I Was Lousy In School. Real Screwed-up. A Moron. I Was Antisocial And Didn't Bother With The Other Kids. A Really Bad Student. I Didn't Have Any Brains. I Didn't Know What I Was Doing There. That's Why I Became An Actor.

I'm Devious, Cruel, Cunning And Addictive.

If You Have High Expectations You're Going To Get Resentments And All Kinds Of Tension.

I've Been Very Lucky. I've Had My Problems In The Past, I've Had My Troubles, But You Move On. I Had A Great Life And I Am Really Thankful For It.

I Like The Good Life Too Much, I'm Not Good At Going On Stage Night After Night And On Wet Wednesday Afternoons.

I'm Interested In The Dream And Subconscious Mind, The Peculiar Dream-like Quality Of Our Lives, Sometime Nightmare Quality Of Our Lives.

I Don't Have Many Friends; I'm Very Much A Loner. As A Child I Was Very Isolated And I've Never Been Really Close To Anyone.

I Have Dual Citizenship, It Just So Happens I Live In America.

There's No Truth In Acting, It's All A Trick, Because You Go On Stage In Front Of Sets, You're On Film - It's All A Trick. I'm Making It Sound Very - I Really Am Demystifying It, But What I Try To Do, What I Do, And I Hope Effectively, Is To Create A Reality As If It Is Happening Now, That You're Fishing For Words Out Of The Air.

Some Nights You Might Go Through An Entire Performance And Not Feel A Thing, And The Audience May Have A Much Better Time, 'cause If You're Enjoying Yourself On Stage Too Much, They're Having A Terrible Time Because They Can't Hear You. And If You're A Woman Your Mascara's Running.

Oh Yes. I'm An Actor, So I Just Learn My Lines, And Show Up And Do It. I Gave It A Little Bit Of Thought.

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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