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" Bill Gallagher's new version of 'The Prisoner' is an enthralling commentary on modern culture. It is witty, intelligent and disturbing. I am very excited to be involved. "

Ian Mckellen

New

Intelligent

I Am

Related Quotes:

" I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work. "

" Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Discover what part you can play and then go for it. "

" There are not many things in my life I can be absolutely proud of or certain I got right, but one of them is that I've got better as an actor. I've learnt how to do it. And I still have enough energy to do it. "

" Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different. "

" You always think that 70 is the end of the road: 'Somebody died when they were 73; good life'. You're closer to death, and you better make sure you don't waste too much of your time doing things you don't want to do. No point in saying things you don't believe in. "

" Very, very rare that you do a job knowing that the audience is desperate for you to do that job. Most films you make don't get released, is the fact. "

" When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much. "

" You put anyone in the outfit, and they look like Gandalf. Not that clever. "

" I don't think many people will re-read 'The Da Vinci Code.' "

" Macbeth is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of Macbeth. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting. "

" I quite like it when I'm on the Tube and people offer me their seat. Sometimes I take it. The other day I was offered a seat by a pregnant lady. I thought, 'That's going a bit far.' "

Ian Mckellen

People

Day

" In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can. "

" I've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy. "

" There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud. "

Ian Mckellen

In The Past

Gay

" Thanks to every gay person in public and non-public life who has come out. "

" When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements. "

" In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself. "

" I'm not being offered a constant stream of wonderful parts with wonderful directors that would keep me away from the theatre. When they turn up, I do them. "

Ian Mckellen

Turn

Wonderful

" I don't really like being with people my own age for long periods, because all we talk about is our decrepitude, how the world is changing for the worse even though it isn't. "

" I can't take on all the worries of the world, you know. I can only talk about being gay and being an actor. I'll have to leave those other battles to somebody else. "

" When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that - in real life - I wasn't doing. "

" I love musicals; I love the ballet, opera, the circus. It's all performance to me. "

Ian Mckellen

Performance

Ballet

" Fame creeps up on you. "

Ian Mckellen

Creeps

You

" No one seems to wash in Middle-earth. "

Ian Mckellen

Seems

Wash

" I was brought up in industrial south Lancashire, down the cobbled road from where LS Lowry (1887 - 1976) lived and painted. "

Ian Mckellen

Down

Road

" I get pretty grumpy about TV. "

Ian Mckellen

Get

About

" The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie. "

" The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses. "

Ian Mckellen

You

Language

" I love working in New York. "

" Theatre is relatively easy if you're British - you're living in the theatre capital of the world, London - there are so many places you can work, still. If I had begun to think of myself as a film actor, I think I would have got distracted. "