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" I don't make any distinction between a popular TV series or blockbuster film and doing Shakespeare. They're different, but as long as the material is good and the intention is honourable, it's all the same to me. "

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" One school invited me down, as two pupils had come out, and the headmaster didn't know what to do about it. I said, 'How many students here are gay?' and he said, 'Just these two.' Clearly not. 'How many gay members of staff have you got?' He had no idea. And this was a concerned man. "

Ian Mckellen

Gay

School

Man

" If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you. "

" If I was a star, it would be difficult to go off and do 'Coronation Street.' So I guess I'm not a star. "

" You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people. "

" I certainly wouldn't define myself as a northerner. I'm not even really sure what that means. I've lived in London for 50 years. I wasn't born here, but I have spent most of my life here. So I don't make much of it, to be honest. I'm just myself. "

" I think the point to be understood is that we're all different. I've never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn't go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, 'This is the way you should act.' "

" Before I ever acted as an amateur - which I did a great deal at school and at university - I used to go to the theater with my parents in the north of England, where I was born and brought up... Theater of all sorts. "

" To be allowed for the first time in your later career to play leading parts in extremely popular movies is not a situation to worry about. "

" 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. "

" The most likely explanation is the most practical. '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 have got prostate cancer, and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it, but other people are dying from it. "

" Every anti-gay remark from the Church gives the thug a license to be cruel. "

" 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. "

" We're very lucky, men, that there are these fabulous parts. Women - once you've done all the parts in Shakespeare, they start running out. So you can pick and choose and find something to energise you. "

" I came rather late to film. I've done an awful lot of theater before - before I discovered the camera, you know, seeing everything, requiring much less acting and - and much less presentation, much less projecting, more just being. "

" 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 was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay. "

" 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. "

" How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play. "

" Fame creeps up on you. "

Ian Mckellen

Creeps

You

" Splendid architecture, the love of your life, an old friend... they can all go drifting by unseen if you're not careful. "

" When you grumble about a taxi being dirty, people your own age will absolutely agree with you, whereas younger people say, 'You should be so lucky to have a taxi - I walk to work!' So I have lots of young friends, who fortunately don't treat me as a guru, a person that knows all the answers. "

Ian Mckellen

Work

Age

" I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem. "

" I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them. "

" I'm brilliant at cooking my stepmother's scrambled egg recipe. The secret is to put eggs, butter, milk, and seasoning together in the saucepan, and to keep stirring with a wooden spoon under a low heat until the preferred consistency is reached. "

" 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

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

" The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them. "

" I'm only an actor. I'm not a writer. I'm not going to leave any legacy. All I've ever done is learn the lines and say them. "

" I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm. "