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.
MICHAEL CAINEBooks were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.
More Michael Caine Quotes
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Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.
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I always exposed the weakness rather than the nastiness.
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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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When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors’ characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best.
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I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.
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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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That to me is what my idea of film acting should be. There shouldn’t be any acting. You should just be watching a real person.
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My father was a fish market porter. So I grew up on fish, because he used to steal one a day, I grew up on the very best fish that money could buy, ’cause he only stole the good stuff.
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When it comes to politics, I believe you have to cut the cake so that everybody gets a piece, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that somebody has to make the cake.
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I’m every bourgeois nightmare – a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.
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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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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.
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Great acting is about listening to what they are saying not waiting to deliver your lines.
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Maybe it’s time we all stop trying to outsmart the truth and let it have its day.
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I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don’t want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.
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I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them jokes against yourself. If you praise yourself, your stories aren’t funny.
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I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.
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You can’t get blase about something you haven’t done yet.
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A man should dress in a way that you don’t notice. He looks good and you don’t know why. But it’s the tailoring, the materials, and the clothes.
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I’m looking for me to disappear, and the acting to disappear, and all you see is a real person.
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At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I’m Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.
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There’s only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures and the Dutch.
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Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.
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I’m the audience’s representative on earth.
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Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy,”Easy” doesn’t enter into grown-up life.
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As an actor, my attitude towards using of film versus digital is, if you have film, filmmakers have to cut eventually so you don’t have to learn all that dialogue. With digital, they can just go on forever and it’s a nightmare. So, I like film – nice short takes.
MICHAEL CAINE