Ian Mckellen Quotes
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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.
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The wonderful thing about modern medicine is that so many of these complaints that used to signify old age and decline can be coped with.
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When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much.
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Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.
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The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses.
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Quakers are terrific.
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I've got a waistline to develop.
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There are not many things in my life I can be absolutely proud of or certain I got right, but one of them is that I've got better as an actor. I've learnt how to do it. And I still have enough energy to do it.
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I got intrigued by working in small theatres.
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If I was on a march at the moment I would be saying to everyone: 'Be honest with each other. Admit there are limitless possibilities in relationships, and love as many people as you can in whatever way you want, and get rid of your inhibitions, and we'll all be happy.
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Imagine trying to be a gay actor, a gay anything in modern Russia? Where to be positively oneself, to be affectionate in public with someone you love of the same gender, or to talk of that love in the hearing of anyone under 18, will put you prison?
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The whole atmosphere of the book, the tone of 'The Hobbit,' is of a kid's adventure story, told in the first person by Tolkien, who is introducing young people to the notion of Middle-earth. A lot of it is very light-hearted.
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Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.
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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.'
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Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.
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In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself.
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Fame creeps up on you.
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On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.
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When we'd suggested doing it, the Theatre Royal management had said, 'Nobody wants to see Waiting for Godot.' As it happened, every single ticket was booked for every single performance, and this confirmation that our judgment was right was sweet. Audiences came to us from all over the world. It was amazing.
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'The Da Vinci Code' is the most popular book of our times.
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I used to think 'King Lear' was an analysis of insanity, but I don't really think it is. When Lear is supposed to be at his most insane, he is actually understanding the world for the first time.
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'The Lego Movie?' I've never heard of it.
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Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing.
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Gandalf saves the world and saves the soul of the world, really.