-
In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Some parents react so strongly to the news that their children are gay that the reaction is, 'Get out of our house.' There's a residue of old prejudices that are going to die hard.
Ian Mckellen -
I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, 'This is fiction.'
Ian Mckellen
-
So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor?
Ian Mckellen -
There are people who've enjoyed my work in the theater, and they let me know that it was special for them. I'm not going to say, 'Well, you should have seen me as Gandalf!'
Ian Mckellen -
When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements.
Ian Mckellen -
I am lucky, I don't have aches and pains. I do Pilates regularly, which is a series of stretching exercises, and I recommend it to anyone of my age because the temptation is not to exercise when you get older. Well, you should.
Ian Mckellen -
'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties.
Ian Mckellen -
There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority, confounded by our numbers and our diversity, and recognising a few of our faces, would at once let go of prejudice forevermore.
Ian Mckellen
-
You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all.
Ian Mckellen -
It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation.
Ian Mckellen -
I think the point to be understood is that we're all different. I've never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn't go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, 'This is the way you should act.'
Ian Mckellen -
Establishing the rights for gay people to be married would cost the Australian government nothing financially and would gain for you worldwide respect from people like us and, of course, would change lives enormously - the lives of gay people and of their friends and of their families and therefore of Australia as a whole.
Ian Mckellen -
I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.
Ian Mckellen -
Every anti-gay remark from the Church gives the thug a license to be cruel.
Ian Mckellen
-
I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887 - 1976) lived and painted.
Ian Mckellen -
I often get mistaken for Dumbledore. One wizard is very much like another.
Ian Mckellen -
I quite like it when I'm on the Tube and people offer me their seat. Sometimes I take it. The other day I was offered a seat by a pregnant lady. I thought, 'That's going a bit far.'
Ian Mckellen -
When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them... And here I am, still at it.
Ian Mckellen -
Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it.
Ian Mckellen -
Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.
Ian Mckellen
-
In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can.
Ian Mckellen -
No one seems to wash in Middle-earth.
Ian Mckellen -
I don't make any distinction between a popular TV series or blockbuster film and doing Shakespeare. They're different, but as long as the material is good and the intention is honourable, it's all the same to me.
Ian Mckellen -
Will I miss Gandalf? Well, I don't miss him, because people are constantly coming up to me mentioning him and talking about him, so I don't feel that I've lost contact.
Ian Mckellen