Michael Caine Quotes

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

I have never seen it (Jaws 4) but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.

...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

It’s a lesson in life—don’t look back, you’ll trip over.

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

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

Some men just want to watch the world burn

I've always got to have one impossible dream on the back burner.

Use the difficulties - if you can't avoid them

The first actor I ever saw was The Lone Ranger. I thought: "That's what I want to do."

No matter what the reason, if you start to scream and shout, you look a fool, and you feel a fool, and you earn the disrespect of everyone.

At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn't a 68-year-old girl, either.

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

I'm looking for me to disappear, and the acting to disappear, and all you see is a real person.

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

A man should dress in a way that you don't notice. He looks good and you don't know why. But it's the tailoring, the materials, and the clothes.

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.

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

Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.

In film, other actors' performances really are not your concern. If the other actor isn't giving you what you want, act as though he were.

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.

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.

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.

I never listened to the people who said I should give it up, which is the main advice I got.

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

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

I used to get the girl; now I get the part. In 'The Quiet American' 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.

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

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

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

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

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

I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

When I'm doing an accent, you shouldn't notice it for a while, if I'm doing it right.

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?'

Be patient.Of course it will come. It took me years to get an Oscar.

When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors' characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best.

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

I always exposed the weakness rather than the nastiness.

Movie actors earn their living and learn their craft through listening and reacting.

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

For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.

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

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

I've never been out with a married woman, never. I respect others' properties.

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I'm my own most vicious critic. So I'm always trying to do it better.

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

I never bring a role home with me. The moment they say, 'It's a wrap,' it's gone completely. I'm a totally ruthless professional, and life is my family, not my work.

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

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