Ian Mckellen Quotes
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My ambition is to get better as an actor.
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If you get criticized, good - I don't think people get criticized enough. People talk behind your back and they criticize you, but they don't often come up and say it to you.
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I had never come across the 'X-Men' comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.
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The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them.
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The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.
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I'm the sort of person who doesn't write in ink. I only write in pencil, so it can be rubbed out.
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I'm not experienced enough, or certain enough of my acting on the screen to say to a director, "You are wrong, I am right. I will only do it this way." I could never feel that, I wish I could be absolutely certain. But on the stage, it's different. I know where I am on the stage.
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It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do.
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There's something wholesome about the theatre.
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I just followed my parents' example and advice on living, which was to leave the world a better place than you found it. They were professional do-gooders, ministers of the church, social workers, teachers, and missionaries, that sort of thing.
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My own death threats have declined considerably.
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My reaction to 3D is subtly. Things don't come out at you, but rather you - The audience come into the film.
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Macbeth is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of Macbeth. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting.
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I don't really like being with people my own age for long periods, because all we talk about is our decrepitude, how the world is changing for the worse even though it isn't.
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The most likely explanation is the most practical. 'Macbeth' is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of 'Macbeth'. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting.
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Most actors are not rich - they are very poor indeed. What keeps them going is that they just love the job.
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If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star.
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Bolton School has a great tradition in the liberal arts.
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I've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy.
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Theatre is relatively easy if you're British - you're living in the theatre capital of the world, London - there are so many places you can work, still. If I had begun to think of myself as a film actor, I think I would have got distracted.
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I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.
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There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company. But you also end up in the company of people you don't admire, including some rather dodgy politicians.
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I think with Shakespeare you can be required to do absolutely anything at the turn of a sixpence - suddenly you go into a battle, suddenly you utter something passionate.
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No actor wants to play to an empty house.