Peter O'Toole Quotes

I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.

We were in the Arabian Desert for nine months. And I was having the time of my life. It could have been an archeological expedition, a military expedition.

It's such a relief for me to sit in front of a tape recorder and not be using it to learn my lines.

When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.

There may be honor among thieves, but there's none in politicians.

I have no intention of uttering my last words on the stage. Room service and a couple of depraved young women will do me quite nicely for an exit.

The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.

Question: How do you know you're God? Answer: Simple. When I pray to him, I find I'm talking to myself.

I will not be an ordinary man, because I have a right to be extraordinary.

Irish women are always carrying water on their heads, and always carrying their husbands home from pubs. Such things are the greatest posture-builders in the world.

George Eliot is my only steady girlfriend. We go to bed together every night.

It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.

I did quite enjoy the days when one went for a beer at one's local in Paris and woke up in Corsica.

A victory? What have we won? We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea.

Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*.

And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.

If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it. If you give up drinking, don't go moaning about it; go back on the bottle. Do. As. Thou. Wilt.

I'm a professional and I'll do anything - a poetry reading, television, cinema, anything that allows me to act.

Booze is the most outrageous of drugs which is why I chose it.

I can't stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another.

I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.

Do you not know that King Kong the first was just three foot six inches tall? He only came up to Faye Wray's belly button! If God could do the tricks that we can do he'd be a happy man!

I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV.

There's a remedy for everything except death.

People're artists they're doing something, taking a hunk of chaps, giving it some order, some form, and presenting it saying here is my little song and dance, my chaos.

If man ever comes to perfect equilibrium with the environment, we'll all be redundant, perhaps because you won't need art or letters.

Acting has been described as farting about in disguise.

I don't go for this auto-cannibalism. Very damaging.

I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!!!

Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.

Being sober for so many years is getting interesting.

I love working with young people, which is to me a big kick.

It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.

There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.

I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.

You talk about auteur de cinema having things in their heads and putting them all across, can you imagine Shakespeare writing screenplays?

I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.

I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.

Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.

The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

I wish to hazard my soul to opportunity.

I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.

He's a scoundrel, young Brad Pitt, who led me, his elderly colleague, astray more than once.

I am human, all too bloody human.

The moment you start dividing thought and feeling, the ratio of sinitive from the intuitive, you're dead. There is no difference between emotion and thought. You can be unreasonable.

It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.

It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.