We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.
Anthony Hopkins
My philosophy is it's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.
I love life because what more is there?
Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.
Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.
I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one's nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves.
Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.
We're all caught up in circumstances, and we're all good and evil. When you're really hungry, for instance, you'll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing - well, maybe that's too strong - but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance.
I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down, drink a glass of vodka and smoke a cigarette.
I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.
I am a bit of a solitude person - a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don't have any major friendships or relationships with people.
The art of acting is not to act. Once you show them more, what you show them, in fact is bad acting.
I'm devious, cruel, cunning and addictive.
I'm a pretty tough guy, you know. I'm a pretty hard man. I've got a lot of compassion, but I don't waste time with people.
Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, 'I want to get out and become like him'. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.
Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.
I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.
My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker.
My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough.
I'm interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.
I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can't be locked up with anyone for too long.
I'm married. My wife, Stella - a beautiful woman. She's brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.
I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.
I don't know why they gave me a knighthood - though it's very nice of them - but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don't.
If you do things, whether it's acting or music or painting, do it without fear - that's my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there's nothing to lose.
I like to take it easy.
Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you're doomed; you're finished.
I do admire Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, but I'm a philistine. I like the good life too much; I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.
Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he's terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he's a terrific actor.
I like the good life too much, I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.
I've felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father's family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.
Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist. Our existence is beyond our understanding. No one has an answer.
Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I'd follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I've been very lucky.
I'm fascinated by the fact that we can't grasp anything about time.
I'm most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page... sunrise over the desert and masses of... a whole essay before you get to the dialogue.
I would like to go back to Wales. I'm obsessed with my childhood and at least three times a week dream I am back there.
We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.
I spent two years in the military service, then I trudged around in repertory for quite a while. I somehow wound up at the National Theatre, though, and then I was definitely on my way.
My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.
The magical, supernatural force that is with us every second is time. We can't even comprehend it. It's such an illusion, it's such a strange thing.
We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.
I've got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I've done it.
I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.
The knighthood was a tremendous honour, I don't dismiss it. But I feel embarrassed by the flowery, theatrical stuff that goes with being an actor.
I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
I don't like freeloaders; I don't like people who are negative.
I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I'm blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.
In the theatre, people talk. Talk, talk until the cows come home about journeys of discovery and about what Hazlitt thought of a line of Shakespeare. I can't stand it.
I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we've had.
I'm not a health freak. I just work out every day.
