Ben Kingsley Quotes

You want to know what I want? I'll tell you what I want. I want back what Bobby Fischer took with him when he disappeared.

That hunger of the flesh, that longing for ease, that terror of incarceration, that insistence on tribal honour being obeyed: all of that exists, and it exists everywhere.

There is so much to do on a film set. It is an extraordinarily invigorating and wonderful place to be, when things are running well.

I'm so dependent on reacting to the other actors on the set, and to the director. I'm very responsive. I react. And I treasure the energy that reaction gives.

The trick is to try and justify every word on the page and make sure my character is the man who would say that.

The camera does not like acting. The camera is only interested in filming behaviour. So you damn well learn your lines until you know them inside out, while standing on your head!

We are adjusters. We empathize, we change rhythm and above all we listen to our fellow actors-if they're good actors.

Hopefully, as I get older in the business, I make my choices more accurately, and I perhaps know from either the script or the first meeting that it isn't going to work.

I was fortunate as a young actor, to go straight to the RSC, where I learned that being an actor can bring with it wonderful responsibilities.

I think that most actors, and they're a very strange lot actors, very strange people, but I think that they attempt to keep in touch with the child.

In England, it's now Sir Ben. Mister has just disappeared. It's not even on my passport anymore. They've taken Mister away from me.

Hamlet is an astonishing intelligence.

Movie magic is movie magic and acting magic is acting magic.

Well, it's wonderful to be identified strongly with my work.

There was one titanic guiding light on the film set, and I was in the presence of a true Mahatma, in the deepest and most profound sense of the word.

I have never felt bereft of anything.

I think that most actors attempt to keep in touch with the child.

When you drop your guard in films, the acting process compensates. You get lazy and you start acting.

I didn't go to drama school because, from the first refusal I then, as I said, a couple of weeks later, was offered a professional job, where I am immensely grateful to the journey.

There is always something about the villains that I'm able to play, quote unquote, that isn't villainous.

I've never had to turn my hand to anything for monetary gain, other than pretending to be somebody else. I'm deeply fortunate.

It's Sir Ben. I've not been a Mister for two years.

There are some directors, lesser in confidence or skill, who make the actor feel very uncomfortable because you feel you're auditioning for them, every day, and that's a terrible feeling on the set.

My line-learning is very special. I like to learn the dialogue of the whole film before I arrive.