I never listened to the people who said I should give it up, which is the main advice I got.
MICHAEL CAINEFirst 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.
More Michael Caine Quotes
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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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In my opinion, everybody is getting older and older. We have a great deal of dementia because nobody grew old enough to get it.
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There’s quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.
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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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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.
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I’ve never been out with a married woman, never. I respect others’ properties.
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Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.
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It’s a lesson in life – don’t look back, you’ll trip over.
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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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Anyone can write. But comedy, you’ve got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.
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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.
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Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
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I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.
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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 understanding of women goes only as far as the pleasures.
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I’ve had such a great time, I’d like to come back as me – and do it all over again.
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You’ve got to be flexible. Directors do a massive amount of planning and homework, and if after all that your director decides to throw it all out of the window and shoot spontaneously, then you must follow his lead.
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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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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!
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Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.
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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!
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Use the difficulties – if you can’t avoid them
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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.
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I’m not in the Lifetime Achievement area yet-I’m still battling it out in the trenches.
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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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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.
MICHAEL CAINE