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Tom [courtenay] And Albert Finney Met Ron Harwood On The Dresser, So That's How It Started. It's A Wonderful Documentary. It's Called Tosca's Kiss And Mr Hardwood Told Me About It When I Asked Him What The Genesis Was. It Was Made In 1983 And Verdi, Who Was Rich And Successful, Toward The End Of His Life Decided To Build A Mansion For Himself In Milan, Where He Lived, And He Stipulated That When He Died Opera Singers And Musicians - Because He Knew So Many Who Were No Longer Playing At The Scala And Some Were Poor - Could Live There.

-Dustin Hoffman

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Tom [courtenay] And Albert

Dustin Hoffman

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Tom [courtenay] And Albert Finney Met Ron Harwood On The Dresser, So That's How It Started. It's A Wonderful Documentary. It's Called Tosca's Kiss And Mr Hardwood Told Me About It When I Asked Him What The Genesis Was. It Was Made In 1983 And Verdi, Who Was Rich And Successful, Toward The End Of His Life Decided To Build A Mansion For Himself In Milan, Where He Lived, And He Stipulated That When He Died Opera Singers And Musicians - Because He Knew So Many Who Were No Longer Playing At The Scala And Some Were Poor - Could Live There.

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People Like Johnny Depp Are An Exception. He Is The Current Model Of What An Actor Should Be. His Body Of Work Speaks Volumes. He Was So Under-rated For So Long, But He Will Have Longevity - And It Is Such A Gratifying Thrill To See He Is Finally Getting The Recognition He Deserves.

My Wife Always Says That I Will Be Stuck With This Forever: I Am The Difficult One. With Jack Nicholson They Always Said It Was Drugs. Warren Beatty Is Supposed To Have Screwed Everything That Jumped Off The Curve. I'll Tell You, In Reality A Few Of Us Had As Many Girls As Warren.

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The Better You Are As A Parent, The Richer The Nest You've Built, The More Difficult It Is For Your Kids To Leave. So They Have To Invent Things To Dislike About You. And They're Brilliant At It.

Stories? We All Spend Our Lives Telling Them, About This, About That, About People … But Some? Some Stories Are So Good We Wish They’d Never End. They’re So Gripping That We’ll Go Without Sleep Just To See A Little Bit More. Some Stories Bring Us Laughter And Sometimes They Bring Us Tears … But Isn’t That What A Great Story Does? Makes You Feel? Stories That Are So Powerful … They Really Are With Us Forever.

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I Got Into Acting So That I Could Meet Girls. Pretty Girls Came Later. First, I Wanted To Start Off With Someone With Two Legs, Who'd Smile At Me And Look Soft.

We Need To Band Together As A Unit Every Day, Especially To Conquer The Strength Of The Aids Virus.

Myth Is Supposed To Bring Us Together, But Fantasy Alienates Us.

There's A New Medical Crisis. Doctors Are Reporting That Many Men Are Having Allergic Reactions To Latex Condoms. They Say They Cause Severe Swelling. So What's The Problem?

Someone Once Said To Me, 'some Of Us Choose To Live With A Lifeboat Just A Little Bit Out Of Our Reach.' I'd Like To Reach A Point Where I No Longer Bullshit Myself. I Think That's The Natural Human Condition - To Lie To Yourself. Because The Truth Is Painful.

I Believe - Though I May Be Wrong, Because I'm No Expert - That This War Is About What Most Wars Are About: Hegemony, Money, Power And Oil.

There's A Rebirth That Goes On With Us Continuously As Human Beings. I Don't Understand, Personally, How You Can Be Bored. I Can Understand How You Can Be Depressed, But I Just Don't Understand Boredom.

This Is Not A Movie About Smelling The Urine! It's Another Kind Of Movie." Volker Schlöndorff Got Billy Wilder To Agree To These Conversations - You Can Buy It - Because Volker Spoke German At Times. And He Said To Billy Wilder: "what Is In Your Mind?" And He Said: "if You're Going To Try To Tell The Truth To The Audience, You'd Better Be Funny Or They'll Kill You." And I Haven't Forgotten That.

The Academy Awards Are Obscene, Dirty . . . No Better Than A Beauty Contest.

The Two Basic Items Necessary To Sustain Life Are Sunshine And Coconut Milk.

You Spend So Much Of Your Life Basing Yourself On What You Think Other People Think Of You. Then You Realise That Maybe One Of The Purposes Of Life Is Not To Care.

Life Is An Occasion...rise To It.

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Well, 45-odd Years Of Doing It, So We All Pile Up The Things We Like About Directors And The Things We Don't Like About Directors. And Sometimes They're Very Similar.

You're Always In A Tunnel That You Can't See The End Of. But There's Something That Took Place On This Movie That I Don't Think We Expected And That Was That Once We Decided That The Entire Cast Would Be Real Retired Opera Singers And Retired Musicians... And These People The Phone Hadn't Rung For Them For 20 Or 40 Years Even Though They Can Deliver.

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I Love Acting, And I`m Not Going To Determine What I Do Based On What I Fear Other People Might Think. I Do What I Want To Do.

I Feel Cheated Never Being Able To Know What It's Like To Get Pregnant, Carry A Child And Breast-feed.

I Think The Most Insulting Thing You Can Do To A Director Is To Challenge When He Or She Is Satisfied With Your Interpretation.

There Is Something Unnatural About Marriage. These Two People Are Not Going To Be The Same People In A Few Years. The Trick Is To Live Your Own Life While Sharing The Same Space.

To Have A Successful Marriage, A Man Must, On A Fundamental Level Be Scared Shitless Of His Wife.

Humanity Seized To Exist When Israel Was Established.

That's What We're All Looking For, The Place Where The Work Leads Us.

I Don't Like The Fact That I Have To Get Older So Fast, But I Like The Fact That I'm Aging So Well.

In Terms Of The Stars, The Only Ones I Cast Were Billy Connolly And Pauline Collins. I Was In Los Angeles Working And A Lot Of This Took Place On The Telephone. I'd Met Maggie [smith] Once And I'd Come Back-stage, Which I'm Usually Loathe To Do Because As An Actor You Don't Want People Coming Back Because You Want To Get Home [laughs].

Tom [courtenay] And Albert Finney Met Ron Harwood On The Dresser, So That's How It Started. It's A Wonderful Documentary. It's Called Tosca's Kiss And Mr Hardwood Told Me About It When I Asked Him What The Genesis Was. It Was Made In 1983 And Verdi, Who Was Rich And Successful, Toward The End Of His Life Decided To Build A Mansion For Himself In Milan, Where He Lived, And He Stipulated That When He Died Opera Singers And Musicians - Because He Knew So Many Who Were No Longer Playing At The Scala And Some Were Poor - Could Live There.

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I Walked Out Of The Theater And Started Crying. My Wife Asked Me, 'why Are You Crying?' I Said, 'because I Can't Do That.' I Didn't Know How He Did It. I've Never Seen Anything Like That. It's Like This Feat, This Rodin Sculpture To Me. It's Like Hearing An Opera Singer And The Tears Go Down Your Face Because It's Not Human What They're Doing. It's Like Sounds Of Heaven.

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A Good Review From The Critics Is Just Another Stay Of Execution.

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I'm Sixty-eight, I Cry Every Chance I Can.

One Thing About Being Successful Is That I Stopped Being Afraid Of Dying. Once You're A Star You're Dead Already. You're Embalmed.

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I Decided To Become An Actor Because I Was Failing In School And I Needed The Credits.

If There Is No Direct Threat Why Are We Invading?

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If You're Waiting For The Job, You're Dead.

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It's True What They Say About Failure. You Don't Learn From Success.

The Plight Of The Actor, Even If He's A Star, Is The Plight Of The Women's Movement. They're Saying The Same Thing To Us: Get Into Bed, Give Me A Good Time, Then Give Me Something To Eat, Go Get The Laundry, Be A Good Girl.

I Did A Movie Called Marathon Man And It Was One Of My Best Memories.

I Stopped Working A Few Years Ago Because I Just Lost A Spark That I'd Had Before. I Thought I'd Just Try Writing, And Maybe Start Directing, But I Did It Very Quietly.

Lost Friendship

You Go To The Cinema And You Realize You're Watching The Third Act. There Is No First Or Second Act. There Is This Massive Film-making Where You Spend This Incredible Amount Of Money And Play Right To The Demographic. You Can Tell How Much Money The Film Is Going To Make By How It Does On The First Weekend. The Whole Culture Is In The Crap House. It's Not Just True In The Movies, It's Also True In The Theater.

I Did Some Writing And Bought A Book, And Have Been Working On That As A Film To Act And Direct In.

I Knew That We Had An Obligation And That Was To Keep An Energy In It And Try To Keep The Audience Interested. In Fact, I Asked Some Of The Actors To Take A Look At His Girl Friday, A Howard Hawks Film With Rosalind Russell And Cary Grant, Because They Talk Over Each Other And There's A Great Energy.

We're All A Little Nit Autistic.

I Came In On This Movie After There Had Been A Director And I Came In After Tom Courtenay Had Talked To Ron Harwood About Making A Movie. So, You Know Tom And Albert Finney Had Been Friends Since The Beginning Of Their Career As They Became Stars Around The Same Time - Tom Always Reminds Me That Albert Was First With Saturday Night And Sunday Morning And Then Tom With The Long Distance Runner.

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