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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.

-Anthony Hopkins

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I'm Most Suspicious Of

Anthony Hopkins

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

I Was Bullied As A Boy - Lots Of Kids Are, But Hopefully Most Of Us Get On With Our Lives And Grow Up.

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

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

There's A Thing That If You - Somebody In Faith Is Always Troubled By Doubt, And Somebody By Doubt Is Always Wanted By Faith. So It's A Kind Of Paradox.

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.

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.

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

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.

A Conductor Can't Be Too Arrogant With An Orchestra And Try To Impose Himself Too Much.

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.

Years Ago I Met Richard Burton In Port Talbot, My Home Town, And Afterwards He Passed In His Car With His Wife, And I Thought, 'i Want To Get Out And Become Like Him'. Not Because Of Wales, Because I Love Wales, But Because I Was So Limited As A Child At School And So Bereft And Lonely, And I Thought Becoming An Actor Would Do That.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The Trick Is Not To Get Too Fanatical About Getting The Accent Too Accurate Because Then That Becomes A Mask. What I Try To Do Is Just Painting And Sketching Some Of The Sounds Without Obliterating My Own Voice.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Interesting Things

Beware The Tyranny Of The Weak. They Just Suck You Dry.

It's Such A Pleasant Surprise When You Come On Set And You Find Someone In Charge Like Ken Branagh Or James Ivory. You Know That You're Going To Do A Day's Work And At The End Of It, It's Going To Be Good.

Pleasant Surprises

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

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

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’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 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.

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

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.

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

I'm Composing And Writing Music.

When I Was A Younger Actor, I Was Very Immersed In It, Very "method" And All That. Now, I Don't Give A Hoot.

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 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've Always Liked American Actors Particularly. Because That Was My First Impression. I Was Very Enamoured Of America When I Was A Kid Because We Were Surrounded By American Soldiers During The War, The Accent Was Very Strange To Me, It Was Very Exotic And Very Captivating.

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

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

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 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.

Jonathan Demme Is A Very Sharp Editor Of His Movies.

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.

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.

The Reward Is In The Doing Of It.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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 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.

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

My Life Is Not My Own Business.

Interdependence

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

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.

Whether It's Overeating Or It's Overworking Or Over-sex Or Whatever It Is, Alcoholism, Drug Addition, We Push Ourselves To The Brink And Then Pull Back Because It's Kind Of Exciting.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I've Been Composing Music All My Life And If I'd Been Clever Enough At School I Would Like To Have Gone To Music College.

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

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.

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 Think Doubt Is A Very Healthy Way To Live.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

What Is So Liberating About This Whole Business Is When You See That, You Know, Big Movies Are Going To Come Out, Huge Movies Are Going To Come Out, And Then You See Them Up In Malibu In The Little Triplex Theater A Week Later, On The Scratch Negative, And You Think...“this Is Show Business. This Is The Great Movie Career. And It’s All Finding It In The Shoebox.”

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

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.

It Was A Challenge, To Work With Oliver Stone.

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.

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.'

I'm The Slowest Driver In The World.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

I’m Not Young Anymore. I Don’t Wanna Start Over Again.

I've Always Liked To Be A Meat And Potatoes Kind Of Actor Who Doesn't Believe In Any Of The Highfalutin Stuff About Acting, So I Tend To Be A Little Bit More Cynical.

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

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

I Don't Know What I Believe.

If You’re An Alcoholic Or A Drug Addict, We Flirt With Death. We Pull Ourselves To The Brink Of Destruction And If We’re Lucky We Pull Ourselves Back. We All Have That In Us.

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.

My Life Turned Out To Be Beyond My Greatest Dreams.

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

Most Of My Last 30 Years Have Been Like That. Results And Manifestations Of Things I'd Dreamed Of As A Young Kid And Wanted As A Child And As A Young Man. I Realized It Maybe 30 Years Ago. I Thought, "this Is Unreal. This Has Happened As I Expected It To, As I'd Pictured It." My Whole Life Has Been Like That And I'm Fascinated By That Power That We All Have. That We Create Our Lives As We Go.

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.

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

I Hate Taxing My Mind With Analysis. I'm Not A Good Analyst. I Cannot Talk About Acting. I Hate Talking About It. I Hate Talking About Analyzing.

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.

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

I'm Not A Health Freak. I Just Work Out Every Day.

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

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.

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.

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

I Never Make Conscious Decisions.

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 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.

Non-expectation And Acceptance. Because Expectation Leads To Resentment And Depression, So I Have No Expectations.

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 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.

Getting Old Ain't For The Faint Of Heart.

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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 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.

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'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.

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

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 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.

Guilt Is The Thief Of Life.

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.

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.

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

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'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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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 Used To Be A Bit Obsessed By Acting But Not Anymore. I Do Enjoy Acting But I Probably Enjoy It More Now Because It's Easier. I Can't Work In The Theater Because To Me It's Too Serious. It's Like Being In Prison For Me. I Admire People That Can Do That But I Can't Do It. I'd Rather Live My Life And Do A Bit Of Acting In Between.

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.

Every Time I Try To Retire, Or Even Think Of Retiring From Acting, My Agent Comes Up With A Script.

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.

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.

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

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 Love To Have A Laugh. I Like To Tease People.

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 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.

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.

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.

Oliver Stone Is A Great Director And I've Seen Many Films Over The Years, But I Try To Create Stuff Out Of My Own Imagination. I Want To Break All The Rules And Mess About With It And Make A Different Movie Just For The Fun Of It.

I Am A Bit Of A Solitude Person - A Solitary Personality. I Like Being On My Own. I Don't Have Any Major Friendships Or Relationships With People.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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