Ian Mckellen Quotes
Journalists often ask me: "Aren't you sorry that after all the work you've done, you're best known as Magneto and Gandalf?" But that's what I've always wanted - not to be known as myself. I want to draw attention to the characters.
Quotes to Explore
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I've done quite a few things based on real events or real people, and I think that's always really interesting that you can read about them or, if you're lucky, you can meet them.
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I think 'North by Northwest' and 'Rope' and Rear Window' and 'Psycho' are on my list of favorite all time movies. I just think his kind of command as a director was almost unparalleled, and I feel like in certain ways the sort of character-based thriller owes more to Hitchcock than anyone.
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I promised my mom that if, after a year of putting 150 percent into my career it didn't work out, I would go back to school. I never did go back.
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It's good to keep in mind that prominence is always a mix of hard work, eloquence in your practice, good timing and fortuitous social relations. Everything can't be personalized.
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I think I'd say that my whole body of work is a reflection of who I am, but not any one specific thing.
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The problem with writing a monthly book is that you're going through your work like a man running for a bus, red-faced and out of breath. There isn't time for reflection or critical self-examination.
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In my 20s, I wanted to be hot; now I want to be healthy.
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I'd hopefully work through all my issues with men first so then I'd be okay being with a woman.
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The only really conscious decision I made was to cast my net wide and if the work was good, to do it.
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I never really wanted kids. I didn't not want them, but motherhood just wasn't something that pulled at me.
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In my mind, every single female character I've written is plus-size.
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I enjoy a character who sticks to her guns, who's always challenging herself. That's something I can relate to.
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If you are playing someone living, it is a different type of judgment. However much work you do, it is not a documentary. There will be things you can't get right, and ultimately, you have to take a leap because - you weren't there.
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I have already seen death, and I know that death is supporting me in my cause of education. Death does not want to kill me.
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I never set out to write songs about the world around me... it just kind of came about as a result of paying more attention to things.
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Never jeopardize who you are for a role. Now, I'm not saying you should never change for a role, because the fun of being different characters is adapting different nuances and different parts of the character, but never jeopardize your moral compass or anything like that to have a role.
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I believe that given the audience attention level, we could do an even more compelling 90 minutes.
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I didn't want to fall into the trap of complacency.
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I've learned not to hide behind a veil of irony - to talk about my work in a more honest way.
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The challenge to me as a director was for the audience to see the film as going on in a straight line, so that they did not sense all of these break-ups. I did not want a film to be a collage of all these images.
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Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
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I read a bit of the Icelandic sagas. They're fascinating in that they are completely ordinary. The farmer will go off into the hills and fight a troll, and then go back and do ordinary things. It's an odd mix of fantasy and reality.
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Journalists often ask me: "Aren't you sorry that after all the work you've done, you're best known as Magneto and Gandalf?" But that's what I've always wanted - not to be known as myself. I want to draw attention to the characters.
