Michael Caine Quotes

I love HD. Of course, it`s very unforgiving, especially on young beautiful ladies, but thank God I`m old, I don`t care.

Don`t remake a successful picture, because you`re liable to be the flop. Steve Martin and I made a much better picture of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) than Marlon Brando and David Niven did. What I wouldn`t do anymore is play any guest shots. I`ve given that up. I did it as some fun and it backfired in Get Carter (2000) so I`m not doing it again. Now I hear that they`re going to remake The Italian Job (1969) with me in the Noel Coward part. I`d consider it, yes.

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

(on Jaws: The Revenge (1987)) I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.

The standing ovation threw me... to be held in such regard in a town so full of talent is quite something.

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

(in 1967) I`ve never been out with a married woman, never. I respect others` properties.

If you`re a movie actor, you`re on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

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

For all my education, accomplishments, and so called `wisdom`... I can`t fathom my own heart.

I used to get the girl; now I get the part. In The Quiet American (2002) you may have noticed I got the part and the girl. It`s a milestone for me, because it`s the last time I`m going to get the girl. I`m sure of it, now I`m nearly seventy.

Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.

First 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.

A lot of my best parts I`ve been the second choice for, so you never get too egotistical about anything.

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

(on doing the Texan accent for Secondhand Lions (2003)) I had a great dialect coach and he told me there`s always one moment when you get something. He said, "Do your Texan accent for me," when I had learned it from a tape. He said, "It`s too English!". I said, "Why?". He said, "Each word stands up like soldiers standing to attention next to each other. The way they talk in Texas, they`re so lazy they sort of lean on each word". And I could just picture all these words leaning over each other, and that`s when I got it.

(on Richard Gere) He`s got a pin-up image, which he hates. The only trouble is this: whenever they ask him to take his trousers off, he does.

I`ll always be there because I`m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I`ve any talent is beside the point.

Whenever anyone asks me to do something about my life`s work, I keep saying, "Please, I haven`t finished yet. Can you give me another year?" . . . In a lifetime achievement award, you just have to watch yourself grow old in 45 minutes.

Be like a duck, my mother used to tell me. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.

The first actor I ever saw was The Lone Ranger. I thought, That`s what I want to do.

Comedy is underrepresented in every actor`s life, because it`s so bloody difficult to write.

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don`t say too much.

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

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.

I`ve made an awful lot of films. In fact, I`ve made a lot of awful films.

At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn`t a 68-year-old girl, either.

I`m a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I`m pig-headed.

(In reference to the Oscar Family Album Tribute sequence at The 70th Annual Academy Awards (1998) (TV) and speaking live on British television following the Oscar ceremony in 1998) I was sat up there with the likes of Claire Trevor and Luise Rainer. It means a lot to me, it was amazing, they are living legends!

The difference between a movie star and a movie actor is this--a movie star will say, "How can I change the script to suit me?" and a movie actor will say. "How can I change me to suit the script?"

I`m every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

I started with the firm conviction that when I came to the end, I wanted to be regretting the things that I had done, not the things I hadn`t.

My own mentality is that I`ve retired. They send me these scripts and if I absolutely have to do it, then I go to work.

I wouldn`t make an anti-American film. I`m one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

I`m the audience`s representative on earth.

January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out.

My view is that you should always do remakes of failures. Then you`ve got nowhere to go but up, you know? They can`t say, "Well, it`s not as good as the original, you made a piece of crap". They`d just say, "What a piece of crap that was," anyway.

(on Julie Walters) "Educating Rita" was wonderful, I did it with Julie Walters, the original girl. She is sensational, really fantastic, and she is a very nice person as well which is always a bonus.

It`s terrible. Every six weeks it`s Christmas. In Catch-22 (1970), the hero says, "Time is going by so fast, I have to make my life more boring." That`s what I`ve got to do, because my life is so interesting and I enjoy myself so much, I`ve got to make it more tedious, because I`ll be 100 in a minute. My mother died when she was 90, so I`ve got just under 20 years left. The terrible thing is that in obituaries, you read, "He died at 74, he had a good life." You think, "Bloody hell, I`ve only got 18 months to go". And another strange thing about aging - as you get older, it gets faster, and you see people you haven`t seen in what you think is five years, but it turns out to be 25 years. You say, "I made that film ten years ago," and they correct me: "Thirty, Michael. Thirty".

When I`m doing an accent, you shouldn`t notice it for a while, if I`m doing it right.

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he`s that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it`s not, I assure you. To disappear your complete self into a character is quite difficult. I`ve tried it 85 times, and I`ve succeeded two or three times.

Such is an actor`s life. We must ride the waves of every film, barfing occasionally, yet maintain our dignity, even as the bulk of our Herculean efforts are keel-hauled before our very eyes.

I`m a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

I see myself as 38, but you don`t notice it.

I`ll always be around because I`m a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I`ve any talent is beside the point.

Anyone can write. But comedy, you`ve got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.

Things are not quite what they seem always. Don`t start me on class, otherwise you`ll get a four-hour lecture.

I`m the original bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

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

I did Harold Pinter`s first play, "The Room". Harold was an actor named David Baron. He said, "I`m going to write". I said, "Oh yeah, it`ll be nice". He said, "But I don`t want to get mixed up with being an actor. I`m going to write with my real name". I said, "What`s your real name, David?" He said, "Harold Pinter".

My name is Michael Caine

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

(on Heath Ledger`s performance as The Joker) The worry going in was The Joker. Jack Nicholson was the greatest Joker so, you know, how do you top that? Well, Heath Ledger`s done it and he`s extraordinary. He`s gone in a completely different direction to Jack. Jack was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath is like a really scary psychopath. I did one scene with him and he was ready to go and had to come up in a lift and raid our place. I didn`t see him for rehearsal and when he came out of the lift he was so incredible I forgot my lines. He frightened the life out of me. I`d never met him before. He`s a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture.

I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.

(on Otto Preminger) O.P. is only happy if everybody else is miserable. Still, if you can keep his paranoia from beating you down, you can learn a lot from the guy.

You get paid the same for a bad film as you do for a good one.

(on Alfie (1966)) To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example. The third thing, for a British actor, is to do it in America. The fourth is to get nominated for an award. That picture did all four things for me.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can`t deal with a woman of their own age.

(on Ray Milland) A nice old bloke.

Obsession is a young man`s game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.

(about remakes of his classic films such as Get Carter (1971) and The Italian Job (1969)) I wish they would remake the BAD ones!

The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.

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

I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead.

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

When you reach the top, that`s when the climb begins.