Anthony Hopkins

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

We're all caught up in circumstances, and we're all good and evil. When you're really hungry, for instance, you'll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing - well, maybe that's too strong - but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance.

I like the good life too much, I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

I'm most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page... sunrise over the desert and masses of... a whole essay before you get to the dialogue.

I'm a pretty tough guy, you know. I'm a pretty hard man. I've got a lot of compassion, but I don't waste time with people.

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

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he's terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he's a terrific actor.

And I love a scary movie. It makes your toes curl and it's not you going through it.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

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

I know that the arts are important. I'm not denying that, but I can't associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

I love roller coasters. I don't get a chance often, but I've gone to Magic Mountain and gone on the rides. I love roller coasters.

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

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

I'm the slowest driver in the world.

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

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.

Well, everyone likes movies when they're a little kid.

This industry has been really good to me. It's been a great life. I'm not through yet. I'm ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

I'm one of the slowest drivers on the road. I mosey along. If you're doing anything too fast, including living life too fast, that creates sudden death. If I have to be somewhere on time, I make sure I leave early enough.

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.

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

I've been composing music all my life and if I'd been clever enough at school I would like to have gone to music college.

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 hope I would not be so arrogant as to doubt anyone's religion or belief.

We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.

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 couldn't say I ever dreamt of becoming a composer, a pianist, or anything else for that matter. I have the kind of brain where nothing is set in stone.

I tend to get bored quickly, which means I must be boring.

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've felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father's family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.

I was called 'Dumbo,' like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school.

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

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 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 believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.

I'm devious, cruel, cunning and addictive.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you're going to do a day's work and at the end of it, it's going to be good.

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.

The Welsh people have a talent for acting that one does not find in the English. The English lack heart.

I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we've had.

I'm not a health freak. I just work out every day.

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, 'I want to get out and become like him'. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

I do admire Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, but I'm a philistine. I like the good life too much; I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can't be locked up with anyone for too long.

I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called 'Equis.' And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, 'I'm home.' I felt really at peace here.