Michael Caine Quotes
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Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.
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One of the great things with comedy is that there's no such thing as a mediocre comedy; it's either uproarious or crap. That's the problem.
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Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
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If I work with a bad actor, my reaction is to immediately become worse than they are.
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A lot of people said, Who do you think you are? I told them I know exactly who I am and I'll tell you exactly where I'm going.
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A lot of movie stars are not great actors; they're just very good-looking. And when they start to age and they don't have the looks any more, then it's over.
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I never look back at all. All of my sentiment and emotion goes into my family. I'm an extremely family oriented person and I have a very, very happy family life. That doesn't just include blood relations. I have friends who are close to me.
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If you really want to become an actor, but only providing that acting doesn't interfere with your golf game, political ambitions and your life, you don't want to become an actor. Not only is acting more than a part time job, it's more than a full time job. It's a full time obsession.
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I have enough money not to do pictures ever. I'm seventy years old. I don't want to get up at 6:30 in the morning and learn ten pages of dialogue to do with a bunch of creeps I don't like. It's gotta be fun for me.
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I love the start of autumn when the trees in my garden change the colour of their leaves in one last dazzling display.
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Someone said to me the other day: "Well, you're eventually going to live until 110." And I said: "Well, who's going to keep me? What age do I retire? 100?" How are you going to live all those years and who is going to keep you doing it? I have a couple of grandchildren now so I'm banking on them.
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My own mentality is that I've retired. They send me these scripts and if I absolutely have to do it, then I go to work.
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If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.
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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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You can see all sorts of things in film acting if you know where to look and what to look for. One thing I often notice is that the actor is looking for his mark, the place where he has to stand to be in the right place in the shot.
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The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly - because if they don't speak fast enough, nobody will listen to them.
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To me, 'Educating Rita' is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.
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First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.
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I've never been competitive with other actors. I've been competitive with myself and I'm my own worst critic, a terrible critic I am, and unless I get something right, I feel very unhappy.
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I just try to play more and more difficult roles.
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You start pretending to have fun, you might have a little by accident.
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You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.
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I've done a lot of radio in my life. I've done radio plays for the BBC when I was young so I was absolutely used to that style of work, of working with the voice. I have a very distinctive voice so it's always great for me because I open my mouth and everybody knows who it is.
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You have to remember, I never became successful or wealthy till I was 30.