Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Keep low expectations and life gets pretty good.

I play piano and that's my love. I read and I paint and I compose music, so I've got a pretty full creative life. And it's not because, I'm obsessively creative.

When you're younger you have so many ideas about yourself; everything is important. It's not when you look back, nothing is that important. It's only life.

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

I've got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I've done it.

Oh yes. I'm an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.

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.

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.

I never make conscious decisions.

I enjoy painting. I don't know if I'm good at it, but I paint. I paint very quickly.

I became an actor because I didn't know what else to do. Academically, I wasn't good.

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.

I don't waste time being soft. I'm not cold, but I don't like being, wasting my time with-life's too short.

I worked at the Steel Company Of Wales when I was 17. My job was to supply tools to the guys working the blast furnaces.

I'm not unfamiliar with music, and I really do write music. I've gotten a talent for it. I don't have the technical skills, but I do plan to learn.

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

I have no illusions about my position in this world as an actor or anything like that. I'm very realistic. Reality is a very liberating thing.

I don't have a vast longing for the stage.

When people call me Sir Anthony I just think oh, that's a bit odd. But I'm not cynical about it. Um, I just feel more comfortable being called Tony or Mr. Hopkins, whatever name I'm called.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.

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'm the slowest driver in the world.

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 was hell bent on destruction... it was like being possessed by a demon.

Acting is constricted because you have the lines. But I improvise with it and what I learn on the set. I improvise rhythms and just changes.

At my age, any day above ground and vertical is a good day.

Acting's entertainment. It's not brain surgery.

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.

How do you play Hannibal Lector? Well just don't move. Scare people by being still.

People ask me how did you choose the part and how did you prepare for this work? I just learned the lines and showed up; I don't know what else to say because that's all I know how to do.

I'm always cast in these strange men... that's not me, really.

I always distrust the word art when it is applied to acting.

I could stay making nice safe BBC movies for the rest of my life, so I decided to risk it. It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

Things have changed so much now. Everything is downloaded onto computers. I'm not a computer-savvy guy, but with downloading the movie industry has changed.

My life is not my own business.

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you're doomed; you're finished.

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

I wanted to be a musician but I didn't have the talent for it, so I decided I wanted to be famous, so I became an actor.

I came here in 1974 to do a play, and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.

I drank a lot, but I wouldn't have missed it. I look back on it as sort of dreary enjoyment, because I don't have to be there anymore.

I worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.

Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.

Acting is about listening and reacting. John Wayne was right: Acting is just reacting. You don't have to do much - as long as you stay out of the way of others. That's why it works.

People ask, 'Should I call you Sir Hopkins?' But I say, 'No. Call me Tony,' because it's too much of a lift-up.

I love the hour in makeup. It gives you time to think and have a cup of coffee. It's my favorite part of the day.

I can't stand directors who try to micro-manage everything. When it happens these days I just walk off set, saying if they don't like the way I'm doing it they can get someone else.

I don't mind being a commodity. It's given me a good life.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.

I love to have a laugh. I like to tease people.