Anthony Hopkins famous quotes

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Life #Thinking #Mind

There is nothing to be scared of in movies. It's a bit scarier going on stage.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Scared #Stage

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Philosophy #Insperational #Thinking

The trick is not to get too fanatical about getting the accent too accurate because then that becomes a mask. What I try to do is just painting and sketching some of the sounds without obliterating my own voice.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Voice #Trying #Sound

Life's too short to deal with other people's insecurities.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Life #People #Insecurity

I'm glad I'm not young anymore. I don't want to start all over again.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Want #Young #Glad

I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down, drink a glass of vodka and smoke a cigarette.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Workout #Lying #Glasses

Non-expectation, non-acceptance because the expectation leads to resentment and depression, so I have no expectations.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Acceptance #Expectations #Resentment

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Play #Monsters #Able

Living with reality is a very good trick. It gives you tremendous freedom and it changes the structure of molecules of your soul by living through reality because you don't expect anything anymore, which is a weird paradox.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Reality #Giving #Soul

I love life because what more is there?
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Love #Life #Insperational

What is so liberating about this whole business is when you see that big movies are going to come out and then you see them up in Malibu in the little triplex theatre a week later and you think, this is show business. This is the great movie career. And it's all funded in the shoe box.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Thinking #Careers #Shoes

Once you accept the fact that there's nothing to fear, you drill into the primal oil well. I believe when we do things without fear, we can do anything. As long as you don't worry about the consequences...
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Believe #Oil #Long

I have no illusions about my position in this world as an actor or anything like that. I'm very realistic. Reality is a very liberating thing.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Reality #Actors #World

The art of acting is not to act. Once you show them more, what you show them, in fact is bad acting.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Art #Acting #Facts

I'm not being cynical but when you're doing a movie you have a number to choices to do as an actor. But then you see it all cut together and some of the little...all those little precious pieces you put in maybe on the cutting room floor. So you don't have that much control. You have very little control, in fact.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Cutting #Numbers #Choices

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Love #Hurt #Pain

I don't mind being a commodity. It's given me a good life.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Good Life #Mind #Commodity

We are fascinated by the darkness in ourselves, we are fascinated by the shadow, we are fascinated by the boogeyman.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Darkness #Shadow #Boogeyman

Whether it's overeating or it's overworking or over-sex or whatever it is, alcoholism, drug addition, we push ourselves to the brink and then pull back because it's kind of exciting.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Sex #Drug #Kind

I'm married. My wife, Stella - a beautiful woman. She's brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Beautiful #Wife #Married

If you're an alcoholic or a drug addict or something, we flirt with death. We pull ourselves to the brink of destruction and if we're lucky we pull ourselves back. We all have that in us.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Flirting #Drug #Lucky

The knighthood was a tremendous honour, I don't dismiss it. But I feel embarrassed by the flowery, theatrical stuff that goes with being an actor.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Actors #Knighthood #Stuff

Well, everyone likes movies when they're a little kid.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Kids #Littles #Likes

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Hogwash #Sentimental #Nonsense

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Nice #Tests #Chianti

People ask me how did you choose the part and how did you prepare for this work? I just learned the lines and showed up; I don't know what else to say because that's all I know how to do.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#People #Lines #Ask Me

If you do things, whether it's acting or music or painting, do it without fear - that's my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there's nothing to lose.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Philosophy #Jail #Acting

My weak spot is laziness. I have a lot of weak spots - cookies, croissants; my wife is always lecturing me about this, I tend to put it all down as habit or it's just acting.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Wife #Acting #Cookies

I don't have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don't know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don't know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don't think you need all that stuff.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Stars #Crazy #Thinking

I love the hour in makeup. It gives you time to think and have a cup of coffee. It's my favorite part of the day.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Coffee #Makeup #Thinking

My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Father #Men #Meat

I like to work. I don't like to disrupt my equilibrium. I don't like to change my head. I'd rather be a third-rate actor. It's a job, and I'm dedicated in my way. I enjoy it. I'm serious about it. But if it doesn't come off, I'm not going to die.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Jobs #Actors #Way

I don't know what acting is, but I enjoy it.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Acting #Enjoy

I believe I am quite amiable and affable and quite fair, and I've rarely worked with people who are the opposite. Moodiness scares me. What gets to me is unkindness. Madness. Unwarranted cruelty through words. People who scream and shout at work. I hate confrontation and violence. I've done it in the past and I don't want to do it again. I guess I want a perfect world.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Hate #Believe #Past

You have to have humor. If you don't have humor and you take yourself seriously, you're dead in the water. You have to be jostled. I love it. You've gotta have a laugh. It's better than working for a living.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Water #Laughing #Have A Laugh

I said once that if they gave me enough money to read the phone book, I'd do it. I live in a total state of non-expectation. I don't expect things, and I keep my expectations very low about everything
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Book #Phones #Expectations

I wanted revenge; I wanted to dance on the graves of a few people who made me unhappy. It's a pretty infantile way to go through life - I'll show them - but I've done it, and I've got more than I ever dreamed of.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Revenge #People #Unhappy

I love roller coasters. I don't get a chance often, but I've gone to Magic Mountain and gone on the rides. I love roller coasters.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Magic #Mountain #Gone

I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one's nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Fun #Mean #Dark

And I love a scary movie. It makes your toes curl and it's not you going through it.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Scary #Curls #Toes

Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dry #Weak #Tyranny

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can't be locked up with anyone for too long.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Long #Very Good #Locked Up

I don't believe in nepotism. I don't much like the idea of parents who interfere.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Believe #Ideas #Parent

I don't have a vast longing for the stage.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Longing #Stage

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#America #Citizenship

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Alive

I was bullied as a boy - lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Growing Up #Kids #Boys

My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Cookies #Laziness #Weak

If you don't go when you want to go, when you do go, you'll find you've gone.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Meaningful #Gone #Want

My life is not my own business.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Life Is #Interdependence #Own Business

I am a bit of a solitude person - a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don't have any major friendships or relationships with people.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#People #Personality #Solitude

Ryan Gosling. He was a good kid, good actor. I like him very much. What was the name of the movie? I've forgotten it. Fracture.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Kids #Names #Actors

I never make conscious decisions.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Decision #Conscious

Oh yes. I'm an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Actors #Lines #Littles

Relish everything that's inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Light #Imperfection #Darkness

I don't have many friends; I'm very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated, and I've never been really close to anyone.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Children #Loner #Isolated

I've got a great sense of humor.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Humor #Sense Of Humor

I'm the slowest driver in the world.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#World #Drivers

I'm interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dream #Mind #Quality

I'm fascinated by the fact that we can't grasp anything about time.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Time #Facts

I'm always cast in these strange men... that's not me, really.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Men #Strange #Casts

I would like to go back to Wales. I'm obsessed with my childhood and at least three times a week dream I am back there.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dream #Childhood #Three

The reward is in the doing of it.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Meaningful #Rewards

I was hell bent on destruction... it was like being possessed by a demon.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Addiction #Hell #Demon

We're all caught up in circumstances, and we're all good and evil. When you're really hungry, for instance, you'll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing - well, maybe that's too strong - but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Strong #Ignorance #Thinking

My father wasn't a cruel man. And I loved him. But he was a pretty tough character. His own father was even tougher - one of those Victorians, hard as iron - but my dad was tough enough.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dad #Father #Character

If I spent all my time criticising myself, I wouldn't be able to function. There are actors who theorise till the cows come home. I haven't the patience for them. It's maybe shallow, but that's why I'll never be part of the acting set.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Home #Acting #Actors

I've had no contact with my daughter for years. That's her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don't want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Daughter #Moving #Years

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#School #Promise #Acting

Getting old ain't for the faint of heart.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Heart #Aging #Faint Of Heart

At my age, any day above ground and vertical is a good day.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Good Day #Age #Aging

Danger is the spice of life and you’ve got to take a risk now and then…that’s what makes life worthwhile.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Risk #Spices #Now And Then

Women never really care to face the truth when their hearts are involved.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Heart #Care #Faces

You look closely enough, you'll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Looks #Enough #Weak

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dream

If you don't follow through on your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dream #Vegetables #Vision

I drank a lot, but I wouldn't have missed it. I look back on it as sort of dreary enjoyment, because I don't have to be there anymore.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Recovery #Looks #Enjoyment

Acting's entertainment. It's not brain surgery.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Brain #Theatre #Acting

I don't want to be anything else other than what I am. I can say that with passion. No regrets...
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Regret #Passion #No Regrets

I was trundling around with my inadequacies, and inner pain and loneliness. I yearned, desperately, to be something. I yearned to get out from where I was ... some deep discontent within myself, actually some deep dislike of myself.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Pain #Loneliness #Discontent

Multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I'm talking about.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Cheesy Love #Talking #Forever

I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we've had.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Thinking #Cinema #Actors

I can't stand directors who try to micro-manage everything. When it happens these days I just walk off set, saying if they don't like the way I'm doing it they can get someone else.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Trying #Directors #Way

My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Philosophy #Thinking #People

I'm devious, cruel, cunning and addictive.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Cunning

I'm not a health freak. I just work out every day.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Work Out #Freak

I've been composing music all my life and if I'd been clever enough at school I would like to have gone to music college.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Clever #School #College

I've got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I've done it.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Needs #Done #Prove

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Editors

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you're doomed; you're finished.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Believe #Fall #Air

People ask, 'Should I call you Sir Hopkins?' But I say, 'No. Call me Tony,' because it's too much of a lift-up.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#People #Too Much #Should

People forget that Mozart wrote for commissions. There's a thing in psychology where they think if it's popular, it can't be serious.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Thinking #People #Psychology

I worked with Lawrence Olivier some years ago. He was a great mentor.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Years #Mentor

I worked at the Steel Company Of Wales when I was 17. My job was to supply tools to the guys working the blast furnaces.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Jobs #Guy #Steel

I like the good life too much, I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Good Life #Night #Afternoon

I'm one of the slowest drivers on the road. I mosey along. If you're doing anything too fast, including living life too fast, that creates sudden death. If I have to be somewhere on time, I make sure I leave early enough.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Live Life #Enough #Sudden Death

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Dream #Atheist #Believe

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Thinking #Funny Retirement #Trying

The magical, supernatural force that is with us every second is time. We can't even comprehend it. It's such an illusion, it's such a strange thing.
-- Anthony Hopkins

#Strange #Illusion #Force