Guess quote

Ian Mckellen [1939-0] English

Rank: 101
Actor

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He is the recipient of six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a BIF Award, two Saturn Awards, four Drama Desk Awards and two Critics' Choice Awards.

Famous, Romantic, Cool, Marriage, Age, Architecture, Attitude, Christmas, Death, Experience, Friendship, Strength, Wisdom

Quote	Tags	Rank
Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.	Experience	101
It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.	Marriage	102
The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living.	Famous, Strength	103
What's upsetting about an autobiography is that the final chapter is always missing. I mean, you want the death, don't you?	Death	104
I used to think 'King Lear' was an analysis of insanity, but I don't really think it is. When Lear is supposed to be at his most insane, he is actually understanding the world for the first time.		105
That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me. It was discovering New Zealand. And even more precious were the people- not at all like the Australians.		106
Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Discover what part you can play and then go for it.		107
I tend to discourage people from calling me 'Sir Ian,' because I don't like being separated out from the rest of the population. Of course, it can be useful if you're writing an official letter, like trying to get a visa or something passed through Parliament. They're impressed by these things.		108
When you grumble about a taxi being dirty, people your own age will absolutely agree with you, whereas younger people say, 'You should be so lucky to have a taxi - I walk to work!' So I have lots of young friends, who fortunately don't treat me as a guru, a person that knows all the answers.	Age	109
I'm not quite as cool as I would like to be, really.	Cool	110
Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.		111
The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.	Romantic, Wisdom	112
Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it.		113
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.		114
I think I've become more modest as the years have gone on.		115
I'm brilliant at cooking my stepmother's scrambled egg recipe. The secret is to put eggs, butter, milk, and seasoning together in the saucepan, and to keep stirring with a wooden spoon under a low heat until the preferred consistency is reached.		116
I'm fortunate to be famous for two rather imposing characters like Magneto and Gandalf.	Famous	117
I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn't know they had got it, and it went on the rampage.		118
You mustn't upstage the bride.		119
Splendid architecture, the love of your life, an old friend... they can all go drifting by unseen if you're not careful.	Architecture	120
Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying.		121
When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like.		122
I always walk up the escalator on the Tube, and I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and that's good exercise, but you need more than that.		123
Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.	Romantic	124
Every anti-gay remark from the Church gives the thug a license to be cruel.		125
I think the point to be understood is that we're all different. I've never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn't go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, 'This is the way you should act.'		126
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.		201
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.		202
The battle going on over gay marriage in America reveals an awful lot. The Bible belt - people hate gay people. Because the Bible tells them? No, the Bible tells them an awful lot of things that they ignore.	Marriage	203
Tony Blair is not a villain, but he's played the part very well.		204
It's an interesting but useless bit of information that every single character in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' wears a wig, and many of them wears a prosthetic - false ears, feet, hands. In my case, nose.		205
I am lucky, I don't have aches and pains. I do Pilates regularly, which is a series of stretching exercises, and I recommend it to anyone of my age because the temptation is not to exercise when you get older. Well, you should.		206
There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority, confounded by our numbers and our diversity, and recognising a few of our faces, would at once let go of prejudice forevermore.		207
I love musicals; I love the ballet, opera, the circus. It's all performance to me.		208
I often get mistaken for Dumbledore. One wizard is very much like another.		209
I can't take on all the worries of the world, you know. I can only talk about being gay and being an actor. I'll have to leave those other battles to somebody else.		210
I have got prostate cancer, and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it, but other people are dying from it.	Cool	211
I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.		212
I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, 'This is fiction.'		213
In the U.K. there is still work to be done, particularly in schools, stopping the homophobic bullies in the playground and introducing unbiased discussion on gay issues in the classroom.		214
In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can.		215
I've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy.		216
If I was on a march at the moment I would be saying to everyone: 'Be honest with each other. Admit there are limitless possibilities in relationships, and love as many people as you can in whatever way you want, and get rid of your inhibitions, and we'll all be happy.		217
If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart.		218
It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier.		219
Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef - but that's only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.		220
There's no sex in Middle Earth.		221
You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73; good life'. You're closer to death, and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in.		222
I headed out to have a breather at the stage door, dressed in my tramp costume. I had my bowler hat between my feet and there were passers-by, and one of them turned back and said, 'Do you need help, brother?' And $1 fell into my hat!		223
Godot is whatever it is in life that you are waiting for: 'I'm waiting to win the lottery. I'm waiting to fall in love'. For me, as a child, it was Christmas. At least that eventually came.	Christmas	224
I'm only an actor. I'm not a writer. I'm not going to leave any legacy. All I've ever done is learn the lines and say them.		225
The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears.		226
I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.		301
When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing.		302
I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887 - 1976) lived and painted.		303
When we'd suggested doing it, the Theatre Royal management had said, 'Nobody wants to see Waiting for Godot.' As it happened, every single ticket was booked for every single performance, and this confirmation that our judgment was right was sweet. Audiences came to us from all over the world. It was amazing.		304
So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor?		305
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.		306
My ambition is to get better as an actor.		307
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.		308
What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows you're opening and cares about you. There's a real village atmosphere.	Friendship	309
I think New York audiences are some of the brightest in the world, and certainly the most enthusiastic.		310
Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth.		311
I used to comfort myself when I became an actor that it was a useful job, entertaining people. And it was important to do it as well as you possibly can.		312
I don't make any distinction between a popular TV series or blockbuster film and doing Shakespeare. They're different, but as long as the material is good and the intention is honourable, it's all the same to me.		313
Bill Gallagher's new version of 'The Prisoner' is an enthralling commentary on modern culture. It is witty, intelligent and disturbing. I am very excited to be involved.		314
I can't make up my mind whether I want to dance like Josef Brown or dance with Josef Brown.		315
The wonderful thing about modern medicine is that so many of these complaints that used to signify old age and decline can be coped with.		316
You won't hear me talk about my politics, you won't hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won't hear me comment on the Iraq war. You'll only hear me talk about being gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues.		317
I'll never put my memoirs in print.		318
There's something wholesome about the theatre.		319
Most actors are not rich - they are very poor indeed. What keeps them going is that they just love the job.		320
The one thing you can ask, I think, is that actors get paid a living wage. I would like it if all the repertory theatres that currently exist could do that. It would make a huge difference.		321
I have lots of fans, they are mostly under the age of 12, boys and girls.		322
There's lots of Tolkien that must be confusing to people.		323
In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself.		324
When I came out, I told my stepmother Gladys, and she just said she had known for years and was glad I wasn't lying anymore.		325
People who are truly horrible are often the most interesting people in the room. You look at them and just say, 'Why?'		326
When I went to lobby Nelson Mandela while the post-apartheid constitution was being drafted, I asked him to endorse making it illegal to discriminate on grounds of sexuality. I'd been warned that he might giggle if I mentioned homosexuality.		401
Fame creeps up on you.		402
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.		403
I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.		404
Actors don't, in fact, retire, do they? It took me a while to remember that.		405
It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do.		406
Doing some of the 'Lord Of The Rings' press junkets got a bit claustrophobic.		407
I get pretty grumpy about TV.		408
My friends are my family.		409
I like sleeping a lot.		410
There are not many things in my life I can be absolutely proud of or certain I got right, but one of them is that I've got better as an actor. I've learnt how to do it. And I still have enough energy to do it.		411
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.		412
'Macbeth' was a very lucky play for me.		413
I have little routines in the theater. Once I've established something, like the order of putting on makeup and a costume, I have to invariably do it in the same order every time, even if I only did it by chance the first time round.		414
We're very lucky, men, that there are these fabulous parts. Women - once you've done all the parts in Shakespeare, they start running out. So you can pick and choose and find something to energise you.		415
The spirit of the four hobbits in 'Lord of the Rings,' I suppose I miss that.		416
You put anyone in the outfit, and they look like Gandalf. Not that clever.		417
If I have any audience, they can know that anything I am in, I would go see, with the expectation of being really satisfied.		418
I love working in New York.		419
I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.		420
I've always had very catholic tastes.		421
'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties.		422
Before I ever acted as an amateur - which I did a great deal at school and at university - I used to go to the theater with my parents in the north of England, where I was born and brought up... Theater of all sorts.		423
When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them... And here I am, still at it.		424
I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.	Attitude	425
I don't any longer make any quality judgement between theater and cinema. They are different experiences for the audience, and they also are for the actors - although they have a lot in common.		426
I've got a waistline to develop.		501
I came rather late to film. I've done an awful lot of theater before - before I discovered the camera, you know, seeing everything, requiring much less acting and - and much less presentation, much less projecting, more just being.		502
Gandalf saves the world and saves the soul of the world, really.		503
No actor wants to play to an empty house.		504
I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.		505
There are a lot of actors - I'm probably one - who are most at home when they're on stage.		506
Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.		507
One thing Middle-earth is short on is the feminine.		508
No one seems to wash in Middle-earth.		509
In the past, kids didn't tell their parents they were gay, so there were never the bust-ups. Some parents react so strongly to the news that their children are gay that the reaction is, 'Get out of our house.' There's a residue of old prejudices that are going to die hard.		510
Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter.		511
Gandalf the Grey was always the guy I prefer. Gandalf the White was driven to do a particular job, whereas Gandalf the Grey is a bit more humane.		512
The whole atmosphere of the book, the tone of 'The Hobbit,' is of a kid's adventure story, told in the first person by Tolkien, who is introducing young people to the notion of Middle-earth. A lot of it is very light-hearted.		513
Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out.		514
I increasingly see organized religion as actually my enemy. They treat me as their enemy. Not all Christians, of course. Not all Jews, not all Muslims.		515
When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements.		516
There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that.		517
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.		518
If you've been in a film that's seen by millions and millions and millions of people, you're more likely to be recognized for that than for your theater performances, which were seen by considerably less people. Why would I get upset by that?		519
There are people who've enjoyed my work in the theater, and they let me know that it was special for them. I'm not going to say, 'Well, you should have seen me as Gandalf!'		520
I'm the sort of person who doesn't write in ink. I only write in pencil, so it can be rubbed out.		521
Because I was in the business of translating the 'X-Men' from the very successful comics, and taking the most popular book of the 20th century in 'The Lord of the Rings,' and making it into three movies, I hope people realize I wouldn't get involved in anything I didn't think was really going to be worth their while.		522
To be allowed for the first time in your later career to play leading parts in extremely popular movies is not a situation to worry about.		523
Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.		524
Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces around him rather than artistic integrity doesn't know the guy or the body of his work.		525
If we just made one movie, 'The Hobbit,' the fact is that all the fans, the eight-, nine- and 10-year-old boys, they would watch it 1,000 times. Now, they've got three films they can watch 1,000 times.		526
One school invited me down, as two pupils had come out, and the headmaster didn't know what to do about it. I said, 'How many students here are gay?' and he said, 'Just these two.' Clearly not. 'How many gay members of staff have you got?' He had no idea. And this was a concerned man.		601
Establishing the rights for gay people to be married would cost the Australian government nothing financially and would gain for you worldwide respect from people like us and, of course, would change lives enormously - the lives of gay people and of their friends and of their families and therefore of Australia as a whole.		602
My own death threats have declined considerably.		603
There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay.		604
If I say often enough that I'm going to be in 'King Kong,' I'm hoping that Peter Jackson will take the hint.		605
The BAFTAs give the British point of view, and the Oscars give the American point of view, but the truth is we're all working in an international industry.		606
Why not celebrate those who want to marry and bring up a family?		607
Very, very rare that you do a job knowing that the audience is desperate for you to do that job. Most films you make don't get released, is the fact.		608
There are some fantastic parts for older actors.		609
I certainly wouldn't define myself as a northerner. I'm not even really sure what that means. I've lived in London for 50 years. I wasn't born here, but I have spent most of my life here. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. I'm just myself.		610
When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much.		611
Bolton School has a great tradition in the liberal arts.		612
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.		613
It is really, really wonderful that in your old age you are protected by specialists who understand your problems and sort them out for you. Well, isn't that what we all need?		614
Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them.		615
Gandalf is ever-present in my life. I like it.		616
It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation.		617
The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them.		618
Eventually, before I die, I hope to have written about every part I've played.		619
I'd never read 'Lord of the Rings' until I was asked to play Gandalf, so I didn't really know it was a frightfully famous book.	Famous	620
I had never come across the 'X-Men' comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.		621
'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics.		622
I know actors who have had to turn down good roles because they just don't pay enough. It's hard.		623
Who does understand life?		624
Tolkien is as good as Dickens at sketching a scene.		625
There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud.		626
I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?'		701
You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people.		702
The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses.	Romantic	703
Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.		704
Will I miss Gandalf? Well, I don't miss him, because people are constantly coming up to me mentioning him and talking about him, so I don't feel that I've lost contact.		705
Every time you work is a challenge. There's a constant worry about it, and it's a side of acting I don't like.		706
In Singapore, Malcolm X type of activity would be extremely difficult because the government can be very harsh on lawbreakers.		707
I'm not someone who wears shades all the time and ducks into a darkened car in case I'm recognized - that would be absolute misery.		708
Imagine trying to be a gay actor, a gay anything in modern Russia? Where to be positively oneself, to be affectionate in public with someone you love of the same gender, or to talk of that love in the hearing of anyone under 18, will put you prison?		709
The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo.		710
It's easier to go from theatre to film than the other way round. In film you're absolutely loved and cossetted and cared for. In film your director makes your performance. In theatre you're carrying it all.		711
What's nice for me, having identified myself for years as being rather shy, is now, wherever I am, in public, there tends to be a friendly face who's pleased to see me, and I like that.		712
I don't have Gandalf the White's certainty about everything.		713
If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.		714
You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all.		715
I'm not being offered a constant stream of wonderful parts with wonderful directors that would keep me away from the theatre. When they turn up, I do them.		716
'The Lego Movie?' I've never heard of it.		717
People on television have trouble with fame because audiences think they're their mates.		718
I got intrigued by working in small theatres.		719
I live for the text. It's my job.		720
'The Da Vinci Code' is the most popular book of our times.		721
I don't think many people will re-read 'The Da Vinci Code.'		722
I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.		723
If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star.		724
I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival.		725
I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm.		726
How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.		801
On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.		802
Quakers are terrific.		803
Some relationships get easier as you get older, depending on what sort of person you are. I don't think I've got any better at them.		804
Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing.		805
I quite like it when I'm on the Tube and people offer me their seat. Sometimes I take it. The other day I was offered a seat by a pregnant lady. I thought, 'That's going a bit far.'		806

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