Ian Mckellen Quotes
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I used to comfort myself when I became an actor that it was a useful job, entertaining people. And it was important to do it as well as you possibly can.
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I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn't know they had got it, and it went on the rampage.
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I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm.
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'Macbeth' was a very lucky play for me.
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The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living.
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'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics.
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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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I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.
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I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy. Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims.
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Some relationships get easier as you get older, depending on what sort of person you are. I don't think I've got any better at them.
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I have little routines in the theater. Once I've established something, like the order of putting on makeup and a costume, I have to invariably do it in the same order every time, even if I only did it by chance the first time round.
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I love working in New York.
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Tony Blair is not a villain, but he's played the part very well.
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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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I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.
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I know actors who have had to turn down good roles because they just don't pay enough. It's hard.
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Tolkien is as good as Dickens at sketching a scene.
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The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.
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You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73; good life'. You're closer to death, and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in.
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I'll never put my memoirs in print.
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What's upsetting about an autobiography is that the final chapter is always missing. I mean, you want the death, don't you?
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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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You put anyone in the outfit, and they look like Gandalf. Not that clever.
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I always walk up the escalator on the Tube, and I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and that's good exercise, but you need more than that.