Michael Caine Quotes

I'm trying to work only with established, respected directors. I took a lot of bad scripts and worked for a lot of lazy directors, and it was discouraging to go to the screenings and see that the director had added nothing, the editor had added nothing, there was nothing to see.

- Michael Caine

Editor, Established, Took, Director

My problem was that I was blond. There were no heroes with blond hair. Robert Taylor and Henry Fonda, they all had dark hair. The only one I found was Van Johnson, who wasn't too cool. He was a nice, homely American boy. So I created my own image. It worked.

- Michael Caine

American, Own, Had, Robert

Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.

- Michael Caine

Calm, Surface, Always, Duck

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I'm Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

- Michael Caine

Wife, England, Muslim, Yiddish

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I'm my own most vicious critic. So I'm always trying to do it better.

- Michael Caine

Compete, Always, Other, Vicious

You cannot have one bathroom. And it don't matter how much you love your wife and everything, 'cause you wind up with no room at all. You just get a little corner, and you've got a toothbrush and your paste and a shaving brush and a razor.

- Michael Caine

Love, Cause, Toothbrush, Razor

To me, growing old is great. It's the very best thing - considering the alternative.

- Michael Caine

Growing, Old, Very, Considering

The three actors I admire the most are all dead. Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and the French actor, Jean Gabin. They're all very natural, sort of masculine without being overly macho.

- Michael Caine

Very, Spencer Tracy, Spencer, Overly

My closest friends are Roger Moore, who is an actor, Sean Connery, who is an actor, Terry O'Neill, who is a photographer, Johnny Gold, who was the boss of Tramp, and Leslie Bricusse, who is a composer.

- Michael Caine

Boss, Closest Friends, Johnny

I was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Imagine signing that autograph! You'd get a broken arm. So I changed my name to Michael Caine after Humphrey Bogart's 'The Caine Mutiny,' which was playing in the theater across from the telephone booth where I learned that I'd gotten my first TV job.

- Michael Caine

Mutiny, TV, Gotten, Autograph

I come from the slums; I come from a hard background; I come from a poor family; and I was a soldier.

- Michael Caine

Soldier, Poor, Background, Slums

If someone is very upper-class, you have a stereotype of him which is probably true. If someone has a working-class accent, you have no idea who you're talking to.

- Michael Caine

Working-Class, Very, Which, Accent

When I'm doing an accent, you shouldn't notice it for a while, if I'm doing it right.

- Michael Caine

Doing, Right, While, Accent

The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

- Michael Caine

Working-Class, About, Badly, Accent

People say I've 'retained' my Cockney accent. I can do any accent, but I wanted other working-class boys to know that they could become actors.

- Michael Caine

Other, Working-Class, Could, Accent

I won an Academy Award for 'The Cider House Rules,' playing an American.

- Michael Caine

Award, Won, Academy Award, Cider

I don't think you retire from movies; movies retire you.

- Michael Caine

Movies, Think, You, Retire

Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.

- Michael Caine

Comedy, Some, Got, Dramas

Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.

- Michael Caine

Waiting, Very, Appropriate, Gag

I admired Marlon Brando as I grew up. I though he was one of the finest screen actors around.

- Michael Caine

Admired, Marlon Brando, Brando

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who's happy with how he looks, because I was never one of the handsome Hollywood people. And I've had success as I've gotten older, because I'm able to play characters. I no longer get the girl, but I get the part.

- Michael Caine

Mirror, Play, Handsome, Hollywood People

I don't want to sound like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, but I do think there should be some sort of national service for young men.

- Michael Caine

Think, Some, Like, Young Men

I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.

- Michael Caine

Dirty, Prefer, Flop, Remake

Hollywood is a cross between a health farm, a recreation center and an insane asylum. It's a company town, and I happen to like the company!

- Michael Caine

Happen, Hollywood, Town, Asylum

My own mentality is that I've retired. They send me these scripts and if I absolutely have to do it, then I go to work.

- Michael Caine

Work, My Own, Mentality, Scripts

I'm every bourgeois nightmare - a Cockney with intelligence and a million dollars.

- Michael Caine

Million, Bourgeois, Cockney, Million Dollars

In England, I was a Cockney actor. In America, I was an actor.

- Michael Caine

America, England, Actor, Cockney

One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.

- Michael Caine

Slow, Twice, Very, Cockney

I am often asked which of my films has come closest to my own ideal of performance, and I always answer, 'Educating Rita.'

- Michael Caine

Always, Which, Films, Closest

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

- Michael Caine

Unknown, Stamp, Became, Sixties

But the whole point of the Sixties was that you had to take people as they were. If you came in with us you left your class, and colour, and religion behind, that was what the Sixties was all about.

- Michael Caine

Behind, About, Whole, Sixties

I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters.

- Michael Caine

Play, Meant, Which, Repertory

I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.

- Michael Caine

Always, Skilled, Any, Beside

For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.

- Michael Caine

Education, Own, My Own, Fathom

The greatest luxury is not driving. I didn't own a car until I was 30, and that was a Rolls-Royce, so it was cheaper to insure a chauffeur. I never want to drive again. My mind is always on other things. I hate parking, and I'm very short-tempered and would get road rage, I'm sure.

- Michael Caine

Parking, Cheaper, Very, Chauffeur

January is the garbage can of movies in America, directly after all the Oscar contenders have been out.

- Michael Caine

Movies, Been, Oscar, January

To me, 'Educating Rita' is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.

- Michael Caine

Away, Been, I Think, Possibly

Every time you get a movie, you get a medical. So you know, you know you're alright for a couple of weeks.

- Michael Caine

Medical, Couple, Weeks, Every Time

I think I have the secret of a successful L.A. restaurant, especially now that so many Europeans live there. You have to have a place where they can see out the windows, see the world passing by. Europeans fancy that.

- Michael Caine

Think, Fancy, I Think, Passing

I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I'm pig-headed.

- Michael Caine

My Life, Anybody, Exactly, Ran

I think what is British about me is my feelings and awareness of others and their situations. English people are always known to be well mannered and cold but we are not cold - we don't interfere in your situation. If we are heartbroken, we don't scream in your face with tears - we go home and cry on our own.

- Michael Caine

Tears, I Think, Heartbroken, Interfere

Growing up, there was only classical music on BBC Radio. We had to listen to the American Forces Network in Germany, which played pop songs, or the pirate radio boats off the coast.

- Michael Caine

Pirate, Which, BBC, Boats

I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

- Michael Caine

Character, Actor, Thoroughly, Transition

Save your money. You're going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.

- Michael Caine

Think, Need, Going, As Much Money

Let me put it this way: If you're sitting in a movie and you're watching me, and you say, 'Isn't that Michael Caine a wonderful actor?' then I've failed.

- Michael Caine

Wonderful, Say, Movie, Sitting

My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch, except that we get this sort of catharsis every six months or so, and we go and be absolutely someone else.

- Michael Caine

Go, Six, Months, Lunatics

I don't worry about the last shot or the next shot. I concentrate. Every shot gets a clean slate. And when a shot is over, I wipe it out absolutely. Tell a joke or something. If you worry about how you looked, how well you did, you'll go insane.

- Michael Caine

Next, Tell, About, Concentrate

I don't work very much, and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.

- Michael Caine

Here, Not Talking, Very, Sit

I just love to go home, no matter where I am, the most luxurious hotel suite in the world, I love to go home.

- Michael Caine

Love, Go Home, Luxurious, Suite

Wherever I live, if there isn't a restaurant I want to go to of a certain type, then I open it. That's all. For selfish reasons.

- Michael Caine

Restaurant, Want, Reasons, Wherever

I'm a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I'll go on for 20 minutes.

- Michael Caine

Go, Minutes, Frustrated, Laugh

My wife comes with me on all the movies, but she is not an appendage to a film star or anything like that. She is a completely intertwined partner. She is the other half of me. Also, we're still very much in love with each other. We always have been, we always will be.

- Michael Caine

Love, Other, Very, Intertwined

I don't do it often, but I do cry. I also laugh a lot; people tell me I'm funny and I do like to laugh.

- Michael Caine

Tell, Like, Often, Laugh

I see myself as 38, but you don't notice it.

- Michael Caine

Myself, See, I See, Notice

You can see all sorts of things in film acting if you know where to look and what to look for. One thing I often notice is that the actor is looking for his mark, the place where he has to stand to be in the right place in the shot.

- Michael Caine

See, Shot, His, Notice

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

- Michael Caine

Play, More, Always, Reprehensible

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.

- Michael Caine

Too Much, Say, John Wayne, Tip

Comedy is underrepresented in every actor's life, because it's so bloody difficult to write.

- Michael Caine

Comedy, Actor, Difficult, Bloody

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

- Michael Caine

Think, Very, Covering, Stage Acting

The difference between a movie star and a movie actor is this - a movie star will say, 'How can I change the script to suit me?' and a movie actor will say. 'How can I change me to suit the script?'

- Michael Caine

Star, Will, Movie, Movie Actor

If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

- Michael Caine

Actor, Controls, Movie, Movie Actor

Things are not quite what they seem always. Don't start me on class, otherwise you'll get a four-hour lecture.

- Michael Caine

Start, Always, Otherwise, Lecture

The absent are never without fault. Nor the present without excuse.

- Michael Caine

Never, Nor, Excuse, Absent

To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example.

- Michael Caine

Play, Movie, Role, Movie Star

If you're a movie star, you get the girl, you lose the girl, and then you get her back. But if you're a character like me, you lose the girl, then you get another one, then you get another one, then you lose them all, then you lose your life.

- Michael Caine

Star, Movie, Like, Movie Star

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

- Michael Caine

Movie, Leading, Became, Movie Star

When you're a movie star and you're young, you are always playing someone who's a better fighter, a better lover, a better everything than you.

- Michael Caine

Star, Movie, Always, Movie Star

What a lot of people don't realize about gangs, in my opinion, is that a gang is not there to attack you. Eighty percent of the people in a gang are there to stop anyone from attacking them. You join a gang for protection, not to go out and hit someone.

- Michael Caine

About, In My Opinion, Attacking

Am I a car aficionado? No: for me, cars have always been just for transport. I didn't even know anyone who had a car until I was 14 or 15.

- Michael Caine

Always, Been, Had, Aficionado

I regard myself as someone who is retired but who occasionally goes out to work. In fact, I'm offered so much good stuff that it's not so occasional.

- Michael Caine

Work, Fact, Goes, Occasionally

I regard myself as someone who is retired but who occasionally goes out to work.

- Michael Caine

Work, Goes, Someone, Occasionally

Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.

- Michael Caine

Very, Rough, Which, Elephant

I'm the audience's representative on earth.

- Michael Caine

Earth, Audience, Representative

I never bring a role home with me. The moment they say, 'It's a wrap,' it's gone completely. I'm a totally ruthless professional, and life is my family, not my work.

- Michael Caine

Work, Bring, Role, Ruthless

The standing ovation threw me... to be held in such regard in a town so full of talent is quite something.

- Michael Caine

Town, Threw, Held, Ovation

The first thing I'll do if I want to look really crappy is, I don't wear any makeup at all.

- Michael Caine

Makeup, Want, Crappy, The First Thing

Do I believe in God? Yes I do. When you've had a life like mine, you have to.

- Michael Caine

Yes, Like, Mine, I Believe In

A lot of my best parts I've been the second choice for, so you never get too egotistical about anything.

- Michael Caine

Best, Been, About, Egotistical

To disappear your complete self into a character is quite difficult. I've tried it 85 times, and I've succeeded two or three times.

- Michael Caine

Difficult, Disappear, Your, Complete

I used to get the girl; now I get the part. In 'The Quiet American' you may have noticed I got the part and the girl. It's a milestone for me, because it's the last time I'm going to get the girl.

- Michael Caine

Going, Last, May, Milestone

I don't meet stockbrokers or carpenters or coal miners; I spend all day with actors, composers and photographers.

- Michael Caine

Composers, Photographers, Miners

I think life has got to develop as you get older, and I don't want to be wandering along doing the same old thing. I want more out of life.

- Michael Caine

Doing, Think, I Think, Older

If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.

- Michael Caine

Think, Schedule, Oscar, Moviemaking

In my early days, I didn't know what a good film or a bad film was, and I was trying to make some money. As it happens I was lucky. I made some good films.

- Michael Caine

Lucky, Some, Films, Good Film

My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.

- Michael Caine

Wife, Sense Of Humor, Sense, Destroys

You get paid the same for a bad film as you do for a good one.

- Michael Caine

Bad, Same, Get, Paid

I started with the firm conviction that when I came to the end, I wanted to be regretting the things that I had done, not the things I hadn't.

- Michael Caine

Conviction, Started, Had, I Came

I feel like 35. At 35 you're old enough to know something and young enough to look forward to what you can do with the knowledge. So I stayed at 35!

- Michael Caine

Young, Old, Like, Old Enough

Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.

- Michael Caine

Movies, Happen, Reasons, Things Happen

Oh, what a shock. My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award.

- Michael Caine

Career, Been, Slipping, Award

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

- Michael Caine

Best, Actor, Playing, Drunk

There's quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.

- Michael Caine

Wife, Bad, About, Bad Stuff

The first actor I ever saw was The Lone Ranger. I thought, That's what I want to do.

- Michael Caine

Thought, Actor, Ever, Ranger

I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

- Michael Caine

Love, Film, Foreigners, Anti-American

If you go away on location for three months and your wife stays at home, you've made a whole new load of friends and she's made a whole new load of friends and you get home and you're kind of strangers.

- Michael Caine

New, Away, Months, Load

Alfie was the first time I was above the title; the first time I became a star in America.

- Michael Caine

Star, First Time, Became, Title

I regard the theater as a woman I loved dearly who treated me like dirt.

- Michael Caine

Woman, Loved, Treated, Dirt

A lot of movie stars are not great actors; they're just very good-looking. And when they start to age and they don't have the looks any more, then it's over.

- Michael Caine

Movie, Over, Very, Movie Stars

I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.

- Michael Caine

Always, Like, Slightly, Financiers

I try to make everyone around me feel comfortable.

- Michael Caine

Me, Feel, Everyone, Comfortable

Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.

- Michael Caine

Game, Never, Young, Excuse

I'm a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

- Michael Caine

Door, Next, Next Door, Sort

I had been nine years in the theatre and hadn't had massive success. My only thing was I wanted to be an actor and I didn't care when, where, or how much for.

- Michael Caine

Been, Nine, Had, Massive

English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.

- Michael Caine

Speech, English, Opposite, Exactly

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.

- Michael Caine

Relationship, Woman, Deal, Tremendous

I learned about life before I went into the theater, which is why I've been so happy. I was a soldier.

- Michael Caine

Been, Which, Learned, Theater

When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.

- Michael Caine

Climb, Reach, Begins, Top

I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.

- Michael Caine

Actor, Person, No Sense, Competition

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

- Michael Caine

I Am, Books, Read, Mad

You have to remember, I never became successful or wealthy till I was 30.

- Michael Caine

Remember, Never, Became, Till

I usually control the environment I'm in, but my control is very quiet and subtle.

- Michael Caine

Control, Environment, Very, Subtle

I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead.

- Michael Caine

Think, TV, Am, Dead

At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn't a 68-year-old girl, either.

- Michael Caine

Girl, Got, Either

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