Michael Caine Quotes

Theater acting is an operation with a scalpel, movie acting is an operation with a laser

I've done a lot of radio in my life. I've done radio plays for the BBC when I was young so I was absolutely used to that style of work, of working with the voice. I have a very distinctive voice so it's always great for me because I open my mouth and everybody knows who it is.

Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.

About Superman and Batman: the former is how America views itself, the latter, darker character is how the rest of the world views America.

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.

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

Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.

Oh, what a shock. My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award.

I'm very much more choosy now. I do stuff that I really, really, really like.

I'm doing the next Batman. I have to become obsessed about what is offered to me.

I've got a lot of back-up because my father was a Catholic, my mother was a Protestant, I was educated by Jews and I'm married to a Muslim. So I won't lose out on a technicality.

You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.

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.

For Cider House Rules, I was doing a New England accent.

A lot of movie stars are not great actors; they're just very good-looking. And when they start to age and they don't have the looks any more, then it's over.

When you're a movie star and you're young, you are always playing someone who's a better fighter, a better lover, a better everything than you.

You start pretending to have fun, you might have a little by accident.

Save your money. You're going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.

I just try to play more and more difficult roles.

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!

Use the difficulties - if you can't avoid them

I'm not a betting man, and even if I was, I certainly wouldn't bet on this! I would not bet on the Best Actor.

If you really want to become an actor, but only providing that acting doesn't interfere with your golf game, political ambitions and your life, you don't want to become an actor. Not only is acting more than a part time job, it's more than a full time job. It's a full time obsession.

In England, I was a Cockney actor. In America, I was an actor.

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

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.

I was watching cartoons on television and a commercial came on for one of the Batman series where I played a butler. And then my grandson looked up at me and he said, "Do you know Batman?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Really," I said, "Yeah." I said I know him very well. And he told all the boys at school, he said, "My grandpa knows Batman. Does your grandpa know Batman? OK, no. Mine does.

If you're a movie star, you get the girl, you lose the girl, and then you get her back. But if you're a character like me, you lose the girl, then you get another one, then you get another one, then you lose them all, then you lose your life.

The first thing I'll do if I want to look really crappy is, I don't wear any makeup at all.

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.

Not only is acting more than a part-time job, it's more than a full-time job. It's a full-time obsession.

To me, growing old is great. It's the very best thing - considering the alternative.

My view is that you should always remake failures because then you've got nowhere to go but up.

But the whole point of the Sixties was that you had to take people as they were. If you came in with us you left your class, and colour, and religion behind, that was what the Sixties was all about.

Am I a car aficionado? No: for me, cars have always been just for transport. I didn't even know anyone who had a car until I was 14 or 15.

Alfie was the first time I was above the title; the first time I became a star in America.

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.

I don't think human beings are bad. They're weak. And that's what makes 'em bad.

English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.

I usually control the environment I'm in, but my control is very quiet and subtle.

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

I'd like it to be remembered as you had some fun. We're only here [living] for some fun. I think if you learn something, all well and good, but we're only here to give you some fun. Along the way, you may find out something.

I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.

I had an extraordinary belief in myself. For years people told me to give it up and even though I was poverty- stricken, I never thought I should give it up.

I'm not in the Lifetime Achievement area yet-I'm still battling it out in the trenches.