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I Just Remember Kathy Bates Getting On The Stage And "the Oscar Goes To Anthony Hopkins." I Looked Around, Because I Really Thought Nick Nolte Would Get It. I Really Thought Nick Would Get It. I Was Very Surprised. It Was Neck And Neck With Nick Nolte And Myself. So I Really Was Expecting That To Happen, And I Went In There Without Any Expectations.

-Anthony Hopkins

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I Just Remember Kathy

Anthony Hopkins

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I Just Remember Kathy Bates Getting On The Stage And "the Oscar Goes To Anthony Hopkins." I Looked Around, Because I Really Thought Nick Nolte Would Get It. I Really Thought Nick Would Get It. I Was Very Surprised. It Was Neck And Neck With Nick Nolte And Myself. So I Really Was Expecting That To Happen, And I Went In There Without Any Expectations.

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I Look In The Mirror And I See The Lines, But I Don't Care. It's A Good Time. I Don't Know Why It's Such A Good Time, But It's A Good Time.

People Forget That Mozart Wrote For Commissions. There's A Thing In Psychology Where They Think If It's Popular, It Can't Be Serious.

Acting Is About Listening And Reacting. John Wayne Was Right: Acting Is Just Reacting. You Don't Have To Do Much - As Long As You Stay Out Of The Way Of Others. That's Why It Works.

I Was Trundling Around With My Inadequacies, And Inner Pain And Loneliness. I Yearned, Desperately, To Be Something. I Yearned To Get Out From Where I Was ... Some Deep Discontent Within Myself, Actually Some Deep Dislike Of Myself.

Multiply It By Infinity And Take It To The Depths Of Forever, And You Will Still Have Barely A Glimpse Of What I'm Talking About.

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.

For Me, Time Is The Greatest Mystery Of All. The Fact Is That We're Dreaming All The Time. That's What Really Gets Me. We Have A Fathomless Lake Of Unconsciousness Just Beneath Our Skulls.

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 Believe I Am Quite Amiable And Affable And Quite Fair, And I've Rarely Worked With People Who Are The Opposite. Moodiness Scares Me. What Gets To Me Is Unkindness. Madness. Unwarranted Cruelty Through Words. People Who Scream And Shout At Work. I Hate Confrontation And Violence. I've Done It In The Past And I Don't Want To Do It Again. I Guess I Want A Perfect World.

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

I'm Having A Great Life. And I'm 73 And They Still Phone Me Up And Ask Me To Do A Job Here And There.

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 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.

I Don't Believe In Nepotism. I Don't Much Like The Idea Of Parents Who Interfere.

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.

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.

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

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.

Things Have Changed So Much Now. Everything Is Downloaded Onto Computers. I'm Not A Computer-savvy Guy, But With Downloading The Movie Industry Has Changed.

Women Never Really Care To Face The Truth When Their Hearts Are Involved.

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

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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.

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.

I'm Always Cast In These Strange Men... That's Not Me, Really.

I'm Not Unfamiliar With Music, And I Really Do Write Music. I've Gotten A Talent For It. I Don't Have The Technical Skills, But I Do Plan To Learn.

I Never Cling On To Hope Or Certainty. They're The Enemies Of Peace.

My Father Was Grounded, A Very Meat-and-potatoes Man. He Was A Baker.

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

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

There's Many A Good Tune Played By An Old Banjo.

I Come From - I Came From Wales, And It's A Strong, Butch Society. We Were In The War And All That. People Didn't Waste Time Feeling Sorry For Themselves. You Had To Get On With It. So My Credo Is Get On With It. 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.

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.

I've Got A Great Sense Of Humor.

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

I Don't Know What I Believe.

My Life Is Not My Own Business.

Interdependence

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.

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 Don't Have A Vast Longing For The Stage.

Keep Low Expectations And Life Gets Pretty Good.

Low Expectations

I Think One Of The Things You Have To Have Is A Respect For The Camera, A Real Respect, And A Real Love For It, And To Really, When I Say Take It Seriously, Quote 'seriously', I Mean Not Patronize It. It's A Big Mistake To Patronize It And Think It's A Third Rate Medium, Because It's Not, It's A Great Art Form.

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.

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.

I've Reached A Happy Stage In My Life - You Can Call It "happy" - But I Have No Expectations Anymore. I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore.

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.

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

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

I Am Young! Being Creative And Keeping Your Brain Occupied Is Very Sensible Because If You Don't You Die, Slowly.

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

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

I Love Life Because What More Is There?

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I Found A Way Into The Acting Business Because I Thought, Well, It Beats Working For A Living, And So That's What I Do. But I Still Feel Like A Bit Of A Stranger In It All. I've Never Really Belonged Anywhere.

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

I Watched A Film With A Very Famous, Great, Great Actor, I Won't Mention His Name Because Everyone Loves His Memory, But I Thought, "god He Was Acting A Lot." Great Actor, But Nonstop Acting. Wall To Wall, Fitted-carpet Acting.

You Have To Be Pretty Tough To Be An Actor, And You Have To Be Pretty Certain What You Want. You Can't Waffle Through This Business.

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I'm Devious, Cruel, Cunning And Addictive.

Once You Begin To Fall Off The Track And Believe You Breathe Different Air To Everyone Else, You're Doomed; You're Finished.

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

I Have No Interest In Shakespeare And All That British Nonsense... I Just Wanted To Get Famous And All The Rest Is Hogwash.

The Way To Make Better Decisions Is To Make More Of Them. Then Make Sure You Learn From Each One, Including Those That Don't Seem To Work Out In The Short Term: They Will Provide Valuable Distinctions To Make Better Evaluations And Therefore Decisions In The Future. Realize That Decision Making, Like Any Skill You Focus On Improving, Gets Better The More Often You Do It.

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

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.

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

I Do The Best I Can - I Know My Way Around [russian Method Acting Pioneer] Stanislavski, But I Can't Take Myself Seriously Like That. I Respect People Who Do It, Of Course. I Just Think I'm Lucky To Still Be Working At 73. You Reach A Point In Life Where You Just Think, "show Up, Do Your Job, Make Sure The Cheque's On The Way," And That's It. I'm Not Hungry To Do Anything More, Really.

I Love Traveling. I Like To Keep Moving. I Love The Big Open Spaces In America.

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

When You're Younger You Have A Lot Of Ideas And You're Probably More Insecure, All Those Things. I Work With Young Actors Now And I See Their Insecurities And I Make Fun Of Them. I Don't Make Fun Of Them But I Make Them Laugh, Because I Know What They're Going Through. When You Get Older You Think 'it's Only A Movie After All, It's Not Brain Surgery.'

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

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.

A Census Taker Once Tried To Test Me. I Ate His Liver With Some Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti.

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.

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

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.

My Life Turned Out To Be Beyond My Greatest Dreams.

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

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.

Mortality Is The Great Rescuer, It Finally Takes You Out Of Everything, And That Makes Life Good.read Carl Jung. It Makes Life Richer Because This Is It; None Of Us Know Where We Go And This Is The Fun Of It.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

If I Spent All My Time Criticising Myself, I Wouldn't Be Able To Function. There Are Actors Who Theorise Till The Cows Come Home. I Haven't The Patience For Them. It's Maybe Shallow, But That's Why I'll Never Be Part Of The Acting Set.

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

I Couldn't Say I Ever Dreamt Of Becoming A Composer, A Pianist, Or Anything Else For That Matter. I Have The Kind Of Brain Where Nothing Is Set In Stone.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Whole Point Of Courage, To Overcome Your Fear. That's The Interesting Thing, When Courage Bleeds Through The Fear.

Interesting Things

I Play Piano And That's My Love. I Read And I Paint And I Compose Music, So I've Got A Pretty Full Creative Life. And It's Not Because, I'm Obsessively Creative.

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

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

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

Richard Burton Came From The Same Town As Me, So I Thought I'd Follow My Nose, And Follow My Luck. I Think I've Been Very Lucky.

If You Do Things, Whether It's Acting Or Music Or Painting, Do It Without Fear - That's My Philosophy. Because Nobody Can Arrest You And Put You In Jail If You Paint Badly, So There's Nothing To Lose.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Supernatural Forces

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

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.

I've Played A Lot Of Parts. But I Don't Look At My Feeling Is That This Is A Job. It's Given Me A Good Living.

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

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'm Composing And Writing Music.

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'm Married. My Wife, Stella - A Beautiful Woman. She's Brought A Lot Of Peace To My Life, A Lot Of Wisdom.

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'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.

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 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 Think Doubt Is A Very Healthy Way To Live.

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

I Wanted To Be A Musician. I Just Wanted To Be Famous Because I Wanted To Escape From What I Felt Was My Limitation In Life... And I Wanted To Write Music, And I Didn’t Know What I Was Doing And I Never Had The Technique Or Understanding Of It... But I’ve Always Played The Piano And I Can Improvise On The Piano, But The Problem Is That I Can’t Write Down What I Write. I Can Read Music But I Can’t Write Numbers.

I Became An Actor Because I Didn't Know What Else To Do. Academically, I Wasn't Good.

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.

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

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

When You're Younger You Have So Many Ideas About Yourself; Everything Is Important. It's Not When You Look Back, Nothing Is That Important. It's Only Life.

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

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 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 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.

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

You're Not More Than One Generation From Poor White Trash, Are You, Agent Starling?

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.

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'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 Don't Have People Following Me Around, Like Bodyguards. I Don't Know How People Live Like That. Maybe The Young Movie Stars Have To Live Like That, I Don't Know. But It Seems A Little Crazy To Me. I Don't Think You Need All That Stuff.

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

At My Age, Any Day Above Ground And Vertical Is A Good Day.

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

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

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Robert Anderson

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