Michael Caine
I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.Collection: Relationship
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.Collection: Age
My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.Collection: Humor
I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.Collection: Intelligence
My problem was that I was blond. There were no heroes with blond hair. Robert Taylor and Henry Fonda, they all had dark hair. The only one I found was Van Johnson, who wasn't too cool. He was a nice, homely American boy. So I created my own image. It worked.Collection: Cool
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.Collection: Famous
For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.Collection: Wisdom
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?Collection: Romantic
The greatest luxury is not driving. I didn't own a car until I was 30, and that was a Rolls-Royce, so it was cheaper to insure a chauffeur. I never want to drive again. My mind is always on other things. I hate parking, and I'm very short-tempered and would get road rage, I'm sure.Collection: Car
Every time you get a movie, you get a medical. So you know, you know you're alright for a couple of weeks.Collection: Medical
I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead.Collection: Movies
Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.
Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.
The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.
When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.
My closest friends are Roger Moore, who is an actor, Sean Connery, who is an actor, Terry O'Neill, who is a photographer, Johnny Gold, who was the boss of Tramp, and Leslie Bricusse, who is a composer.
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.
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.
Save your money. You're going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.
If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.
To me, growing old is great. It's the very best thing - considering the alternative.
My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch, except that we get this sort of catharsis every six months or so, and we go and be absolutely someone else.
My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.
I just love to go home, no matter where I am, the most luxurious hotel suite in the world, I love to go home.
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?'
Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.
I admired Marlon Brando as I grew up. I though he was one of the finest screen actors around.
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.
If someone is very upper-class, you have a stereotype of him which is probably true. If someone has a working-class accent, you have no idea who you're talking to.
When I look in the mirror, I see someone who's happy with how he looks, because I was never one of the handsome Hollywood people. And I've had success as I've gotten older, because I'm able to play characters. I no longer get the girl, but I get the part.
Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.
To me, 'Educating Rita' is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.
I don't think you retire from movies; movies retire you.
I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I'm pig-headed.
I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.
I don't worry about the last shot or the next shot. I concentrate. Every shot gets a clean slate. And when a shot is over, I wipe it out absolutely. Tell a joke or something. If you worry about how you looked, how well you did, you'll go insane.
Let me put it this way: If you're sitting in a movie and you're watching me, and you say, 'Isn't that Michael Caine a wonderful actor?' then I've failed.
People say I've 'retained' my Cockney accent. I can do any accent, but I wanted other working-class boys to know that they could become actors.
My wife comes with me on all the movies, but she is not an appendage to a film star or anything like that. She is a completely intertwined partner. She is the other half of me. Also, we're still very much in love with each other. We always have been, we always will be.
I think what is British about me is my feelings and awareness of others and their situations. English people are always known to be well mannered and cold but we are not cold - we don't interfere in your situation. If we are heartbroken, we don't scream in your face with tears - we go home and cry on our own.
I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.
You get paid the same for a bad film as you do for a good one.
Wherever I live, if there isn't a restaurant I want to go to of a certain type, then I open it. That's all. For selfish reasons.
The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.
I see myself as 38, but you don't notice it.
When I'm doing an accent, you shouldn't notice it for a while, if I'm doing it right.
You have to remember, I never became successful or wealthy till I was 30.
I won an Academy Award for 'The Cider House Rules,' playing an American.
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!
I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.