Michael Caine Quotes - Page 3

I'm looking for me to disappear, and the acting to disappear, and all you see is a real person.

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.

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.

In film, other actors' performances really are not your concern. If the other actor isn't giving you what you want, act as though he were.

I was so poor for so long that I didn't use anything. I didn't drive cars, I didn't eat very much. So, I figured the world owed me a debt, so I've been eating very well and have had a very big car for a long time. But I still haven't caught up with my youth.

In my opinion, everybody is getting older and older. We have a great deal of dementia because nobody grew old enough to get it.

The trouble with women? Elbows.

Be patient.Of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar.

I feel like 35. At 35 you're old enough to know something and young enough to look forward to what you can do with the knowledge. So I stayed at 35!

Hollywood is a cross between a health farm, a recreation center and an insane asylum. It's a company town, and I happen to like the company!

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.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.

There is no point in competing with young talent...I just concentrate on getting better each day.

I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them jokes against yourself. If you praise yourself, your stories aren't funny.

For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.

There was a certain moment. I was about 61 - two, three or four, and I got a script. And I sent it back to the producer saying - "I don't wanna do it. The part's too small." And he sent it back to me, he said, "You shouldn't read the lover. You should read the father.

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

Hey, I always say: if you want a quiet life, become a monk.

You cannot have one bathroom. And it don't matter how much you love your wife and everything, 'cause you wind up with no room at all. You just get a little corner and you've got a toothbrush and your paste and a shaving brush and a razor. And you can never get in there. So you must have two bathrooms. You really must. I think it's essential.

If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.

It's much harder to act in a bad film than in a good one. A terrible script makes for very difficult acting. You can win an Academy Award for some of the easiest acting in your career, made possible by a brilliant script.

I spent my entire time reading books and going to the cinema, just to escape.

I always exposed the weakness rather than the nastiness.