Christopher Lee Quotes

Before 'Lord of the Rings,' some people would have just classed Peter Jackson as a horror director. But there is a mind there.

I was attached to the SAS from time to time, but we are forbidden - former, present, or future - to discuss any specific operations.

I think that - apart from the fields of science and medicine - we live in an age of decline. Look at the world. There is decline in morals, ideals, manners, respect, truthfulness: just about everything, in fact.

There are many vampires in the world today ... you only have to think of the film business.

I've always acknowledged my debt to Hammer. I've always said I'm very grateful to them. They gave me this great opportunity, made me a well known face all over the world for which I am profoundly grateful.

Ian Fleming was my cousin, and he wanted me to play Dr. No, but by the time he got around to remembering to tell the producers, they'd already cast someone else. Spilt milk!

My great-grandmother was born in London, the daughter of a Brixton coachman, and became the most famous singer in Australia. Her name was Marie Carandini, Madame Carandini.

The song 'My Way' is a very remarkable song. It is also difficult to sing because you've got to convince people that what you're singing about is the truth. It's a man who is very proud of having achieved everything that he's achieved his way.

I don't play long parts. They must be short parts, but they've got to be parts that mean something, that matter, where people will notice when I'm on the screen, and people will remember the character after they've seen the film.

Films are now made by accountants. They pick a pretty young female or male face out of the air and give them a part - not because they think that person is right for it or is ready for it, but because they think that person will make them money.

I knew Vincent Price from films - he was a big movie star - but the first time I met him was when we filmed 'The Oblong Box.'

She was a classic beauty. She looked like a coin, so it was only natural for her to circulate.

The saddest country I went to was Romania, years ago, during Ceausescu's rule.

There was a gap of seven years between the first and second Dracula movies. In the second one as everybody knows, I didn't speak, because I said I couldn't say the lines.

I associate heavy metal with fantasy because of the tremendous power that the music delivers.

There is a dark side in all of us. And for us 'bad' people, the bad side dominates. I think there is a great sadness in villains, and I have tried to put that across. We cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing.

I did radio, I did television, I did opera, I did films in which I had very, very little to say. But I had a lot of experience in front of the camera, and that's what really counts

Outside the cinema I had not yet learned to live, but within it I had most certainly learned to die. I could die for you in every way known to man, and in a few ways known only to scriptwriters. I could see now that provided that I remained fit, the future held many more deaths yet. I could only hope that they would serve some purpose, and that perhaps a reputation may come in the same way as a coral formation, which is made up of a deposit of countless tiny corpses.

I don't really like long flights any more - I find them too tiring. Flying always involves the same things these days - huge crowds at airports, waiting around, late take-offs, weather problems, and so on. I don't really enjoy travelling. I don't imagine anyone does except young children.

Somebody once asked me how I found Peter Jackson, and I said: 'Well, I parted his hair, and there he was.'

I'm much softer than people think. I don't present to the world an emotional face. I'm pretty good at self-control, but I am easily moved.

Someone asked me yesterday if Dracula met Saruman and there was a fight, who would win. I just looked at this man. What an idiotic thing to say. I mean, really, it was half-witted.

There is something sad about malevolence, to be wicked. I have always tried to make that come across in the villains I have played.

The thing I have always tried to do is surprise people: to present them with something they didn't expect.

I thought that people should know about the dangers of Satanism, and diabolism does exist - there's no question about it.

If I had any deadly secrets, I wouldn't still be alive.

A whole new career opened up for me when I was in 'Lord Of The Rings' and 'Star Wars.'

I haven't done lots of horror.

'The Wicker Man' for me, as an actor, was definitely the best film I've ever done.

I haven't spent my entire career playing the guy in the bad hat, although I have to say that the bad guy is frequently much more interesting than the good guy.

In 1956, the success of the Hammer films kick-started my career. That immediately gave me a name and a face to go with it. I will always be grateful to Hammer for that.

What's really important for me is, as an old man, I'm known by my own generation and the next generation know me, too.

I stopped appearing as Dracula in 1972 because in my opinion the presentation of the character had deteriorated to such an extent, particularly bringing him into the contemporary day and age, that it really no longer had any meaning.

I was always interested in enchantment and magicians and still am.

It's a band singing on how metal should be played, the effect it has on the band and its listeners.

Making films has never just been a job to me; it is my life. I have some interests outside of acting - I sing and I've written books, for instance - but acting is what keeps me going: it's what I do; it gives life purpose.

I still think 'The Lord of the Rings' is the greatest literary achievement in my lifetime. Like so many other people, I couldn't wait for the second and then the third book. Nothing like it had ever been written.

My father's family can be traced back to 1400. I've been told by gypsies that there is unmistakeably gypsy blood in me. Lee is a gypsy name, you know.

I turn to the 'Telegraph's' obituaries page with trepidation.

It's what you don't see that keeps you on the edge of your seat in any kind of film - leave it to the imagination of the viewer.

I wasn't a spy. I'd have been spotted in five seconds. Yes, I was in intelligence, but that covered a multitude of things.

I don't think anyone has ever succeeded in putting Ian Fleming's James Bond up on the screen. The closest in my opinion is Pierce Brosnan.

I've worked with Tim Burton five times, and it's just like being part of a family; life doesn't get much better than that.

Comedy is the most difficult thing to do. Easily the most difficult.

When I first read 'Lord of the Rings,' I wanted to see a film of it. But at that time, the technology wasn't there; there was no such thing as CGI.

You can learn Elvish, if you want. It's a language like Italian and English. You can learn to read it, you can learn to write it, and you can learn to speak it.

I didn't want to be known as a man who only made horror films. I made some - very few.

Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff didn't like the word 'horror'. They, like I, went for the French description: 'the theatre of the fantastique'.

Let's just say I was in Special Forces and leave it at that. People can read into that what they like.

I've been for 10 years trying to make something out of my life as an actor. I've learned a lot but I haven't done much that's worthwhile. So maybe if I make people wonder what I really do look like and make myself unrecognizable, they will be interested and intrigued, which eventually, of course, happened.