Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" 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. "

Related Quotes:

" The one thing you can ask, I think, is that actors get paid a living wage. I would like it if all the repertory theatres that currently exist could do that. It would make a huge difference. "

Ian Mckellen

Think

You

Difference

" It's my impression that I've done every job that I've been asked to do. "

" Gandalf saves the world and saves the soul of the world, really. "

" 'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties. "

" 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've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, 'This is fiction.' "

" Tony Blair is not a villain, but he's played the part very well. "

Ian Mckellen

Villain

Well

" I'm the sort of person who doesn't write in ink. I only write in pencil, so it can be rubbed out. "

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

" If you get criticized, good - I don't think people get criticized enough. People talk behind your back and they criticize you, but they don't often come up and say it to you. "

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

Ian Mckellen

Performance

Ballet

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

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

" 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. "

" Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Some relationships get easier as you get older, depending on what sort of person you are. I don't think I've got any better at them. "

" You won't hear me talk about my politics, you won't hear me talk about my vegetarianism, you won't hear me comment on the Iraq war. You'll only hear me talk about being gay and being an actor. I am just public on those two issues. "

" When I was playing Gandalf, I didn't think, 'Oh my dear, I'm playing a 7,000 year old wizard,' because I've never met one, and I don't know what they're like. "

" Fame creeps up on you. "

Ian Mckellen

Creeps

You

" In Singapore, Malcolm X type of activity would be extremely difficult because the government can be very harsh on lawbreakers. "

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

" I think New York audiences are some of the brightest in the world, and certainly the most enthusiastic. "

" The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo. "

" I owe a great deal to Harold Hobson, doyen drama critic of the 'U.K. Sunday Times,' who championed me as Shakespeare's Richard II at the 1969 Edinburgh Festival. "

" Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth. "

" '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. "

" So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor? "

Ian Mckellen

You

Age