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" I think with Shakespeare you can be required to do absolutely anything at the turn of a sixpence - suddenly you go into a battle, suddenly you utter something passionate. "

Ian Mckellen

Passionate

Think

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" It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation. "

Ian Mckellen

Younger

Generation

" Doing some of the 'Lord Of The Rings' press junkets got a bit claustrophobic. "

" You see people in Hollywood trying to make blockbuster after blockbuster, but it's not possible. There's some god up there saying, 'You will fail now.' But I suppose that's true of us all. "

" When we'd suggested doing it, the Theatre Royal management had said, 'Nobody wants to see Waiting for Godot.' As it happened, every single ticket was booked for every single performance, and this confirmation that our judgment was right was sweet. Audiences came to us from all over the world. It was amazing. "

" On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact. "

" People who are truly horrible are often the most interesting people in the room. You look at them and just say, 'Why?' "

" Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them. "

" Actors don't, in fact, retire, do they? It took me a while to remember that. "

Ian Mckellen

Took

Remember

" 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. "

" I remember Tom Stoppard saying to me when I came out, 'I feel so sorry for you, because you'll never have children.' These days I would say, 'Well, why not, Tom?' "

Ian Mckellen

Children

Saying

" I think I've become more modest as the years have gone on. "

Ian Mckellen

Modest

Think

" 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

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

" 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. "

" I can't make up my mind whether I want to dance like Josef Brown or dance with Josef Brown. "

Ian Mckellen

Want

" Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter. "

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

" Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay. "

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

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

" 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

" If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart. "

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

" My own death threats have declined considerably. "

" It's only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous. "

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

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

" You mustn't upstage the bride. "

Ian Mckellen

Bride

You

" 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. "