Peter O'Toole Quotes

I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

Peter O'Toole

• Common
• Smooth
• Monotony

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Quotes to Explore

• I do not choose to be a common man…it is my right to be uncommon—if I can…I seek opportunity—not security…I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed… to refuse to barter incentive for a dole… I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopias….

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Men
  • Dream
  • Opportunity

• Pope Paul III was the greatest thief in the history of the church.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Church

• Do you not know that King Kong the first was just three foot six inches tall? He only came up to Faye Wray's belly button! If God could do the tricks that we can do he'd be a happy man!

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Firsts
  • Feet
  • Kings

• The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Walking
  • Exercise
  • Behinds

• It was around 1985 before I heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • President
  • News
  • Heard

• I can make the best French toast.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Toasts

• My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Favorite

• I found him perhaps the least terrifying man I've ever met in the theater—because at first glance I could see through him and he could see through me, and he knew that I knew that he knew. Look, love, I've been bullied all my life by bigger experts than Larry Olivier, I can assure you, and he's just got to get in line.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Men
  • Firsts
  • Found

• He's a scoundrel, young Brad Pitt, who led me, his elderly colleague, astray more than once.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Colleagues
  • Scoundrels
  • Elderly

• The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Friends
  • Common
  • Denominator

• Writing is a kind of performing art, and I can't sit down to write unless I'm dressed. I don't mean dressed in a suit, but dressed well and comfortably and I have to be shaved and bathed.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Writing
  • Art
  • Kind

• Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Artist
  • Anywhere

• No one can take Jesus away from me.... There's no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Jesus
  • Doubt
  • Importance

• It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Heart
  • Film
  • Retiring

• It's such a relief for me to sit in front of a tape recorder and not be using it to learn my lines.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Lines
  • Relief
  • Fronts

• The central objective in decolonising the African mind is to overthrow the authority which alien traditions exercise over the African. This demands the dismantling of white supremacist beliefs, and the structures which uphold them, in every area of African life. It must be stressed, however, that decolonisation does not mean ignorance of foreign traditions; it simply means denial of their authority and withdrawal of allegiance from them.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Mind
  • Mean
  • Exercise

• I can't tell you about acting. You can develop all the skills, voice, gesture, movement, you can develop by exercise and practice but finally fundamentally it's mining from yourself, from your own personality, from what you know. If you can't know it you can have a good guess by people you know or books you've read.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • People
  • Book
  • Personality

• If man ever comes to perfect equilibrium with the environment, we'll all be redundant, perhaps because you won't need art or letters.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Men
  • Art
  • Perfect

• I don't go for this auto-cannibalism. Very damaging.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Damaging
  • Cannibalism

• Many years ago I sent an old, beloved jacket to a cleaner, the Sycamore Cleaners. It was a leather jacket covered in Guinness and blood and marmalade, one of those jobs... and it came back with a little note pinned to it, and on the note it said, 'It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.' So that will do for me. That can go on my tombstone.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Perfect
  • Blood
  • Beloved

• Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Joy
  • Highlights
  • Beckett

• Booze is the most outrageous of drugs which is why I chose it.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Drug
  • Outrageous
  • Booze

• I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Years
  • Made
  • Class

• I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

  

  Peter O'Toole
  • Common
  • Smooth
  • Monotony