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" 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. "

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" 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. "

Ian Mckellen

Actor

Leave

Learn

" 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

" When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them... And here I am, still at it. "

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

" Why not celebrate those who want to marry and bring up a family? "

Ian Mckellen

Celebrate

Bring

" Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing. "

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

Ian Mckellen

Want

" 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. "

" Gandalf the Grey was always the guy I prefer. Gandalf the White was driven to do a particular job, whereas Gandalf the Grey is a bit more humane. "

Ian Mckellen

White

Job

" 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. "

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

Ian Mckellen

Took

Remember

" I always walk up the escalator on the Tube, and I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and that's good exercise, but you need more than that. "

" I get pretty grumpy about TV. "

Ian Mckellen

Get

About

" The whole atmosphere of the book, the tone of 'The Hobbit,' is of a kid's adventure story, told in the first person by Tolkien, who is introducing young people to the notion of Middle-earth. A lot of it is very light-hearted. "

" Fame creeps up on you. "

Ian Mckellen

Creeps

You

" 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. "

" The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living. "

" 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? "

" 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. "

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

" You mustn't upstage the bride. "

Ian Mckellen

Bride

You

" 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. "

" 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. "

" The BAFTAs give the British point of view, and the Oscars give the American point of view, but the truth is we're all working in an international industry. "

" 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. "

" It's an interesting but useless bit of information that every single character in 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' wears a wig, and many of them wears a prosthetic - false ears, feet, hands. In my case, nose. "

" 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. "

" In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can. "

" 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. "

" Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me. "

Ian Mckellen

Who

Happened