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" I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly. "

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" 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. "

Ian Mckellen

World

Think

Work

" It is really, really wonderful that in your old age you are protected by specialists who understand your problems and sort them out for you. Well, isn't that what we all need? "

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

" What's upsetting about an autobiography is that the final chapter is always missing. I mean, you want the death, don't you? "

" There is a fantasy as old as the modern gay rights movement that if all our skins turned lavender overnight, the majority, confounded by our numbers and our diversity, and recognising a few of our faces, would at once let go of prejudice forevermore. "

" The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears. "

" 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. "

" I'm not quite as cool as I would like to be, really. "

Ian Mckellen

Cool

Would

" 'King Lear,' I've been seeing all my life. I mean, the great actors of my lifetime... to join their company, as it were, by playing a part that's challenged them, is one of the great joys of being an actor who does the classics. "

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

" 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. "

" Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do. "

" My friends are my family. "

Ian Mckellen

Friends

Family

" Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying. "

" I have lots of fans, they are mostly under the age of 12, boys and girls. "

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

" One thing Middle-earth is short on is the feminine. "

" There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company. "

" Gandalf is ever-present in my life. I like it. "

Ian Mckellen

My Life

Life

" I used to comfort myself when I became an actor that it was a useful job, entertaining people. And it was important to do it as well as you possibly can. "

" It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier. "

" What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows you're opening and cares about you. There's a real village atmosphere. "

" I have little routines in the theater. Once I've established something, like the order of putting on makeup and a costume, I have to invariably do it in the same order every time, even if I only did it by chance the first time round. "

" I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn't know they had got it, and it went on the rampage. "

" There's no sex in Middle Earth. "

" What's nice for me, having identified myself for years as being rather shy, is now, wherever I am, in public, there tends to be a friendly face who's pleased to see me, and I like that. "

" I've got a waistline to develop. "

Ian Mckellen

Develop

Got

" I tend to discourage people from calling me 'Sir Ian,' because I don't like being separated out from the rest of the population. Of course, it can be useful if you're writing an official letter, like trying to get a visa or something passed through Parliament. They're impressed by these things. "

" If you've been in a film that's seen by millions and millions and millions of people, you're more likely to be recognized for that than for your theater performances, which were seen by considerably less people. Why would I get upset by that? "

" 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