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.

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.

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

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

I do not choose to be a common man…it is my right to be uncommon—if I can…I seek opportunity—not security…I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed… to refuse to barter incentive for a dole… I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopias….

Many years ago I sent an old, beloved jacket to a cleaner, the Sycamore Cleaners. It was a leather jacket covered in Guinness and blood and marmalade, one of those jobs... and it came back with a little note pinned to it, and on the note it said, 'It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.' So that will do for me. That can go on my tombstone.

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

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

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

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

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.

It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.

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

Everyone praises Sachin Tendulkar. He may be a genius in his own right but in my book, Rahul Dravid is the artist. Dravid's defence tactics, his strokes, his cuts, his grace are truly amazing. I'd like to meet the chap sometime and take my hat off to him.

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.

My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfillment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.

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

We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure.

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.

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

There's a remedy for everything except death.

It was a mistake and I made the mistake because I was conservative and played safe. And that way lies failure." "Must do it... constantly go to the well... constantly try, try, try. Dare. Dare, Dare. Who dares wins.

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

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.

Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

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

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

I put steam on the table by being an actor. That is how I live. The longer I live, the more expensive it becomes. So I do my work. And I can't be immensely picky. How many beautiful scripts come in one's lifetime? I have had more than anybody, practically.

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

There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

Being sober for so many years is getting interesting.

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

I'm a very physical actor. I use everything - toes, teeth, ears, everything. I don't simply mean physical in the sense of movement and vigour. I find myself remembering the shape of a scene by how I'm standing, what I'm doing.

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.

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

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.

Anything an artist does is to show ourselves as we really are, which is a complex thing. I don't think that one work of Philosophy or Art, or Letters, or Acting, or Middle Playing, or Tightrope Walking, or Flea Circuses has made mankind better, if by better you mean kinder, wiser, more tolerant of each other. One thing self knowledge. Knoticayton: know thyself.

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

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