Michael Gambon Quotes

I can't remember any of the films I've done. You go from one to another, and they all blend in to a big mass. You remember the costumes because you remember how you felt - that Western I did with Kevin Costner where I wore the big hat and the two guns, I remember that.

I've always tried to be an actor who ... I just plod on and try to keep my mouth shut, mind my own business. I find the whole thing about people's lives ... I can't understand it. I'm always astonished that people want to know anything about me.

Oh yeah, I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

I never met my theater fans. I'm out the stage door five minutes after the curtain goes up. So that's it. I don't even know who comes, but thank God they do come. I can't tell. I keep my head down. I don't meet them. The fans from "Harry Potter" are kids who stop me in the street. I love that. That's terrific. I was amazed how many do.

I live in fear of being a contented passenger. I'd rather get parts I can't play.

All actors say they're concerned about the state of the theatre, but what they're really concerned about is that there'll be less work around.

I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me.

I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.

I've had a private pilot's license for years and flown all round the U.K. and over to France.

I've played quite a lot of crooks and killers, and that's quite interesting. Then Dumbledore is the complete opposite, isn't he? He's a nice old man.

There's no subtext in 'Harry Potter,' really; it's all magic - anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn't say much for acting, does it?

I want to be good all the time, so I feel anxious. But if you weren't like that, you'd be dead, wouldn't you? If you went out happy down the road, la la la. I've never been like that. I don't want to be.

My only memories of school are of being beaten, of being hit in the playground, of masters poking their fingers in my chest all day.

I don't play classical guitar. But I do in my mind. I've got it on a stand.

For an actor to remain a child is rather important. It's a childlike, dreamy thing, acting, if you think about it. It's the sort of thing children fantasise about, playing cowboys and Indians in the street. I think that acting is just a highly refined development of that.

Richard was in heavy, heavy costume, he could hardly sit, you know, and I turned up and they put me in two layers of silk, so I played him much lighter - you know, floating around in a pair of slippers, a bit of a hippy.

I just hate the idea of being well known. I know that is almost impossible if you're an actor who has done okay, but I've always fought against it.

There were no spells at my school, just a smack in the mouth.

I'm an anorak. I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.

Paul Schofield said something like, 'If I'm not acting in a play, I don't really exist.' Those weren't the exact words, but he meant it's only when I'm acting in a play that I've got something to say about the world. And then why should I talk, when people can come to see it?

Theater actors are just tolerated. You have to be a movie star to be a celebrity.

I find it difficult to remember lines. When I'm doing a long speech for television, I sometimes have an earpiece with someone feeding me the text. But I can get by in the theatre if I study hard for a couple of months.

Maybe that is why kids like Dumbledore: because he is funny rather than a miserable old sod with a long white beard.

I just play him as myself, I don't ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.