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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.

-Michael Caine

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I've Never Been Competitive

Michael Caine

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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.

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

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.

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 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 Am In So Many Movies That Are On Tv At 2:00 A.m. That People Think I Am Dead.

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

If Someone Is Very Upper-class, You Have A Stereotype Of Him Which Is Probably True. If Someone Has A Working-class Accent, You Have No Idea Who You're Talking To.

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

Obsession Is A Young Man’s Game.

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.

Every Magic Trick Consists Of Three Parts, Or Acts. The First Part Is Called The Pledge. The Magician Shows You Something Ordinary. The Second Act Is Called The Turn. The Magician Takes The Ordinary Something And Makes It Into Something Extraordinary. But You Wouldn't Clap Yet, Because Making Something Disappear Isn't Enough. You Have To Bring It Back.

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've Made The Transition From Star To Character Actor And I'm Thoroughly Enjoying It.

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

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.

Youre Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Doors Off!

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

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.

...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'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.

Do I Believe In God? Yes I Do. When You've Had A Life Like Mine, You Have To.

I Think I Have The Secret Of A Successful L.a. Restaurant, Especially Now That So Many Europeans Live There. You Have To Have A Place Where They Can See Out The Windows, See The World Passing By. Europeans Fancy That.

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

My Circle Of Friends Are Not Actors At All. None Of Them Are Actors, Really, Because They're Are Not Available. They're Always Off Somewhere.

Circle Of Friends

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

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

I'm A Sort Of Boy Next Door. If That Boy Has A Good Scriptwriter.

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

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.

It's Much Harder To Act In A Bad Film Than In A Good One. A Terrible Script Makes For Very Difficult Acting. You Can Win An Academy Award For Some Of The Easiest Acting In Your Career, Made Possible By A Brilliant Script.

What It Is Is That Comedy Is Underrepresented In Every Actor's Life, Because It's So Bloody Difficult To Write. Anyone Can Write, And Then You Leave It To Special Effects To Make It Look Good. But Comedy, You've Got To Do Some Writing.

If You Think You're Going To Be Up For An Oscar, You Schedule Your Moviemaking.

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 Spent My Life In The Library Reading Books.

I've Always Played Very Human Sort Of Characters.

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

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.

To Me, Growing Old Is Great. It's The Very Best Thing - Considering The Alternative.

I Am A Great Admirer Of Other Actors, But I Never Compete With Other Actors. I Always Compete With What I Did Last, And I'm My Own Most Vicious Critic. So I'm Always Trying To Do It Better.

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

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

Sometimes, In A Part, Everything Comes Together.

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.

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

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.

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.

My Mother Had Heard All About Miniskirts But Had Never Seen One So I Took Her For Lunch At Alvaro's [in Chelsea]. We Walked Down The King's Road And Waited 10 Seconds For Our First Miniskirt And A Girl Came Along With Her Skirt Tucked Round Her Arse. I Said: 'what Do You Think, Ma?' And She Said: 'if It's Not For Sale, You Shouldn't Put It In The Window!'

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

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

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

For All My Education, Accomplishments, And So Called 'wisdom'... I Can't Fathom My Own Heart.

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

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.

My Wife, My Daughters, Even My Grandchildren Are Funny. You've Got To Keep A Sense Of Humor Because Anger Destroys You.

Funny Things Happen To You In Movies For Silly Reasons.

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

January Is The Garbage Can Of Movies In America, Directly After All The Oscar Contenders Have Been Out.

Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn

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.

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

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

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

If You Really Want To Become An Actor, But Only Providing That Acting Doesn't Interfere With Your Golf Game, Political Ambitions And Your Life, You Don't Want To Become An Actor. Not Only Is Acting More Than A Part Time Job, It's More Than A Full Time Job. It's A Full Time Obsession.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Acting Is Not A Competition; Everything Must Be Done For The Good Of The Film Or Else Everybody Loses.

I'm The Happiest Grandfather In The World, I Promise You.

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.

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.

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

I Never Look Back At All. All Of My Sentiment And Emotion Goes Into My Family. I'm An Extremely Family Oriented Person And I Have A Very, Very Happy Family Life. That Doesn't Just Include Blood Relations. I Have Friends Who Are Close To Me.

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

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

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.

You're Never Too Old To Be Crazy.

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

I'm Forever Testing Myself. As A Person And As An Actor, I Have No Sense Of Competition.

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

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

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

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 Worry About The Last Shot Or The Next Shot. I Concentrate. Every Shot Gets A Clean Slate. And When A Shot Is Over, I Wipe It Out Absolutely. Tell A Joke Or Something. If You Worry About How You Looked, How Well You Did, You'll Go Insane.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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'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.

One Of The Great Things With Comedy Is That There's No Such Thing As A Mediocre Comedy; It's Either Uproarious Or Crap. That's The Problem.

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.

As An Actor, I'll Play Anything.

Alfie Was The First Time I Was Above The Title; The First Time I Became A Star In America.

I Think What Is British About Me Is My Feelings And Awareness Of Others And Their Situations. English People Are Always Known To Be Well Mannered And Cold But We Are Not Cold - We Don't Interfere In Your Situation. If We Are Heartbroken, We Don't Scream In Your Face With Tears - We Go Home And Cry On Our Own.

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.

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

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

If You're A Gardener You Don't Need A Gym. [...] You're Always Carrying Large Sacks Of Manure All Over.

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.

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

In My Opinion, Everybody Is Getting Older And Older. We Have A Great Deal Of Dementia Because Nobody Grew Old Enough To Get It.

My Mum Never Understood How Much I Earned. When I Told Her I Earned A Million Pounds A Film, She Said, 'how Much Is That?'

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

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'm Not A Betting Man, And Even If I Was, I Certainly Wouldn't Bet On This! I Would Not Bet On The Best Actor.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

By The Time The Oscars Are On I'll Be Seventy. How Many More Chances Am I Going To Have To Get Nominated For An Oscar?

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

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.

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

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

I'm The Audience's Representative On Earth.

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

If You Put Someone On Screen Long Enough, They Become The Hero.

I Try To Make Everyone Around Me Feel Comfortable.

I Used To Get The Girl; Now I Get The Part. In 'the Quiet American' You May Have Noticed I Got The Part And The Girl. It's A Milestone For Me, Because It's The Last Time I'm Going To Get The Girl.

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

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

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

I'm Always Slightly Envious Of People Who Become Extremely Rich Without Anyone Knowing Who The Hell They Are, Like Financiers.

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

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

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

You Can See All Sorts Of Things In Film Acting If You Know Where To Look And What To Look For. One Thing I Often Notice Is That The Actor Is Looking For His Mark, The Place Where He Has To Stand To Be In The Right Place In The Shot.

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

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.

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

I Just Work In Order To Improve Myself As An Actor Which Is What I've Always Done.

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.

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

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

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

Respecting Others

You Must Always Steal, But Only From The Best People. Steal Any Trick That Looks Worthwhile. If You See Vivien Leigh Or Robert Deniro Or Meryl Streep Do Something Stunningly Effective, And You Can Analyze How He Or She Did It, Then Pinch It. Because You Can Be Sure That They Stole It In The First Place.

God Willing, Even I Might Scrape A Nomination.

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

If I Work With A Bad Actor, My Reaction Is To Immediately Become Worse Than They Are.

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 Don't Think You Retire From Movies; Movies Retire You.

I Spent My Entire Time Reading Books And Going To The Cinema, Just To Escape.

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

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

I've Always Loved Reprehensible People Because They're So Much More Interesting To Play On Screen.

I'm Hoping There's An Afterlife. As You Get Older, You Hope Even More Fervently.

You Start Pretending To Have Fun, You Might Have A Little By Accident.

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!'

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

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

I Did Everything. I Ran My Life Exactly As I Wanted To, All The Time. I Never Listened To Anybody. I'm Pig-headed.

When You're A Young Actor You Ring Your Agent Every Evening. It's Not Like When You're In Hollywood Where You Do One Picture A Year. You Just Hope You Get A Day On Television.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Do You Know That The Harder Thing To Do And The Right Thing To Do Are Usually The Same Thing? Nothing That Has Meaning Is Easy,"easy" Doesn't Enter Into Grown-up Life.

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

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.

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.

It’s A Lesson In Life—don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over.

I Always Exposed The Weakness Rather Than The Nastiness.

You Can't Get Blase About Something You Haven't Done Yet.

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.

I Was So Poor For So Long That I Didn't Use Anything. I Didn't Drive Cars, I Didn't Eat Very Much. So, I Figured The World Owed Me A Debt, So I've Been Eating Very Well And Have Had A Very Big Car For A Long Time. But I Still Haven't Caught Up With My Youth.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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