Michael Caine Quotes

I don't have to work. I suppose I should retire. But I enjoy working.

I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I don't work very much, and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.

My dialogue coach said to do a Texas accent, you lean on the next word, and that was the clue to me.

I've done my job and I've got the picture out there, and I'm very happy with it.

My career is going better now than when I was younger. Now I get the part. Back then, I'd get the girl.

I feel that I helped the working class by just saying there are no barriers, which I consider to be true.

I wear a baseball cap all the time, which I would never normally wear, and I walk very fast.

I didn't know what I knew. I wasn't aware of what I knew.

I don't want to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, but I do think there should be some sort of national service for young men.

My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.

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.

You can't get blase about something you haven't done yet.

Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy,"Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life.

It's vital to have your own space so you aren't constantly in each other's pockets.

The basic rule of human nature is that powerful people speak slowly and subservient people quickly - because if they don't speak fast enough, nobody will listen to them.

The trouble with women? Elbows.

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!

There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch.

I've never taken drugs - if you take a drug of your choice, you get some ecstatic feeling.

I see myself as 38, but you don't notice it.

I usually control the environment I'm in, but my control is very quiet and subtle.

I have a knack of making villainous people a little bit sympathetic, a bit of fun on screen.

The old guys like me started in the theatre. I was in the theatre for nine years.

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.

You don't sacrifice your individuality; you sacrifice a lot of freedom.

In my opinion, everybody is getting older and older. We have a great deal of dementia because nobody grew old enough to get it.

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

This is your life, Larry. Learn to enjoy what you've got.

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'm a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I'll go on for 20 minutes.

I'm very much more choosy now. I do stuff that I really, really, really like.

I didn't want to come in the movie every so often, every 20 minutes saying, 'Dinner is served, would you like coffee?'

I spent my entire time reading books and going to the cinema, just to escape.

I'm very, very family oriented. I'm a big cook and a good connoisseur and I only drink very good red wines now.

In real life, I'm afraid of heights - and people who get moral convictions... Adolf Hitler in London.

In my day, the drug was alcohol and the weapon was a fist, so it was very sort of innocent and primitive. Now you've got drugs, guns, and knives, which are so lethal.

I just work in order to improve myself as an actor which is what I've always done.

I try to make everyone around me feel comfortable.

No English director would've cast me as an officer, I promise you. Not one.

80 percent of any gang is not there to attack someone. They're there so no one will attack them.

How can I change me to suit the script?

I'm hoping there's an afterlife. As you get older, you hope even more fervently.

I always say to my wife, don't tell anyone I watch this [shows like The X Factor and Pop Idol], but it fascinates me because I've done so many auditions and been knocked back.

I've always played very human sort of characters.

I'm not tough anymore, I'm 82.

I don't have to work, really, but I do enjoy working, and I do enjoy getting paid.

You don't retire from the movies. The movies retire you.

I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.

It's funny, people ask me, 'What would you consider the most romantic track on your record Mr Caine?' And I say 'Swollen' by Bent, and they say 'I think he's off his rocker!'