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" I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other. "

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" I glory in the fact that a human being has multiple talents and exercises them all with a degree of integrity and artistic proficiency. That's what I do. "

Theodore Bikel

Human Being

Glory

Human

" If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to. "

" I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew. "

" I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation. "

" I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel. "

Theodore Bikel

Been

Never

" I am not a specialist but a general practitioner in the world of the arts. "

" An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.' "

" I created the role of Captain Von Trapp. "

" 'Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really. "

" Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route. "

" You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them. "

" In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace. "

" By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul. "

Theodore Bikel

Action

Endurance

" I always sang, I always acted, I always played. "

" But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel. "

" You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition. "

" In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event. "

" For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles. "

" I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sing about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing. "

" I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent. "

Theodore Bikel

God

Claim

" One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way. "

" No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation. "

" I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures or that the Jewish song is better than the song of my neighbor. "

" I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive. "

" The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before. "

" You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it. "

" While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice. "

" Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out. "

" I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings. "

" But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist. "

Theodore Bikel

I Am

Jewish