Michael Caine Quotes
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A man's body may grow old, but inside his spirit can still be as young and as restless as ever.
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I've been acting a long time, and I can play a Cockney gangster or a womanizer in my sleep or standing on my head. But what I try to do is I try to find characters that are as far away from me as I possibly can and then make them real. A French Nazi is about as far away from me as I can possibly get without actually going to Mars or something.
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Theater acting is an operation with a scalpel, movie acting is an operation with a laser
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I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.
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My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.
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English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.
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I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.
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Every magic trick consists of three parts, or acts. The first part is called the Pledge. The magician shows you something ordinary. The second act is called the Turn. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it into something extraordinary. But you wouldn't clap yet, because making something disappear isn't enough. You have to bring it back.
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For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.
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I was in Korea. I've noticed all my life I see elderly people who have been close to death in an illness and they're absolutely cured and they say, now I know how to live my life. I've seen death. That happened to me when I was 19. It was a terrible, terrifying thing. And I live my life like those people decided to do when they were old. So, since I was 19, I've had the most fun possible every single day, even when I had a rough life. It was the army which taught me about life, and the theater which taught me how good it could be.
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I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
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My mum never understood how much I earned. When I told her I earned a million pounds a film, she said, 'How much is that?'
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Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.
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I never bring a role home with me. The moment they say, 'It's a wrap,' it's gone completely. I'm a totally ruthless professional, and life is my family, not my work.
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The standing ovation threw me. ... To be held in such regard in a town so full of talent is quite something.
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If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.
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I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.
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I'm the happiest grandfather in the world, I promise you.
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My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.
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...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
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It's vital to have your own space so you aren't constantly in each other's pockets.
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The three actors I admire the most are all dead. Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and the French actor, Jean Gabin. They're all very natural, sort of masculine without being overly macho.
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Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.
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I'm not in the Lifetime Achievement area yet-I'm still battling it out in the trenches.