Michael Caine famous quotes

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

#Inspiring #Encouragement #Bad Day

I was in Korea. I've noticed all my life I see elderly people who have been close to death in an illness and they're absolutely cured and they say, now I know how to live my life. I've seen death. That happened to me when I was 19. It was a terrible, terrifying thing. And I live my life like those people decided to do when they were old. So, since I was 19, I've had the most fun possible every single day, even when I had a rough life. It was the army which taught me about life, and the theater which taught me how good it could be.
-- Michael Caine

#Fun #Army #Elderly

...some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
-- Michael Caine

#Dark #Men #World

When I was a young actor I was in a lot of film doing one day work and two days' work, and they've included all those titles, which I don't even remember. I think I've played the lead in about 75 movies.
-- Michael Caine

#Thinking #Two #One Day

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

#Drama #Writing #Scripts

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. And you can never get in there. So you must have two bathrooms. You really must. I think it's essential.
-- Michael Caine

#Love You #Thinking #Wind

I have been rich and I have been poor. I know which one I prefer.
-- Michael Caine

#Inspirational #Rich #Poor

I heard my first laughter on stage, when I was about 10 years old. It was gold pantomime and I remember I was playing Baron Fitznoodle, who was the father of the ugly sisters in "Cinderella." And I walked on and got a great big laugh and I thought that was fantastic, until I looked down and found that my flies were open. And so I always check my flies. I even check my flies on radio.
-- Michael Caine

#Laughter #Father #Years

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

#Growing Up #Book #Elephants

Since I was 19, I've had the most fun possible every single day, even when I had a rough life. It was the army which taught me about life, and the theater which taught me how good it could be.
-- Michael Caine

#Fun #Army #Taught

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

#Birthday #Sad #Men

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

#Soldier #Theater

Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.
-- Michael Caine

#Competition #Acting #Done

I must admit, the only reason I joined an amateur dramatic society is because I couldn't get to kiss any girls - I was chasing girls all the time - and so I thought if I join it, there might be some love scenes. And there was a particular girl and I thought I might get to kiss Amy. I never did get to kiss Amy but I did get to kiss Elizabeth Taylor, so it was all right, a lot later.
-- Michael Caine

#Girl #Kissing #Amy

You've got to be flexible. Directors do a massive amount of planning and homework, and if after all that your director decides to throw it all out of the window and shoot spontaneously, then you must follow his lead.
-- Michael Caine

#Acting #Directors #Planning

Someone said to me the other day: "Well, you're eventually going to live until 110." And I said: "Well, who's going to keep me? What age do I retire? 100?" How are you going to live all those years and who is going to keep you doing it? I have a couple of grandchildren now so I'm banking on them.
-- Michael Caine

#Couple #Grandchildren #Years

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

#Regret #Aquarius #Acting

If you're an actor and you don't act for a long time you sort of think, I wonder if I can still do it.
-- Michael Caine

#Thinking #Long #Actors

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

#Thinking #People #Tvs

My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch.
-- Michael Caine

#Views #Actors #Couches

First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.
-- Michael Caine

#Acting #Pay #Firsts

People say to me, why did you do those films, and I say, for money. It wasn't for diamond rings or kidney shaped swimming pools in Beverly Hills, it was in order to improve the lot of everyone around me.
-- Michael Caine

#Swimming #Order #People

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

#Class #People #Guy

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

#Actors #Talent

You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.
-- Michael Caine

#Long #Acting #Asking

You start pretending to have fun, you might have a little by accident.
-- Michael Caine

#Fun #Littles #Might

It's funny, people ask me, 'What would you consider the most romantic track on your record Mr Caine?' And I say 'Swollen' by Bent, and they say 'I think he's off his rocker!'
-- Michael Caine

#Thinking #Track #People

English is clipped in speech. Texas is exactly the opposite.
-- Michael Caine

#Texas #Opposites #Speech

In my opinion, everybody is getting older and older. We have a great deal of dementia because nobody grew old enough to get it.
-- Michael Caine

#Getting Older #Opinion #Enough

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

#Birthday #Workout #Thinking

I always say to my wife, don't tell anyone I watch this [shows like The X Factor and Pop Idol], but it fascinates me because I've done so many auditions and been knocked back.
-- Michael Caine

#Idols #Wife #Done

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

#Directors #Actors #Stage

I've been in every disco in the world. I saw a picture of my wife Shakira and I dancing in Studio 54; I didn't even know someone had taken that picture.
-- Michael Caine

#Taken #Dancing #Wife

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

#Dollars #Nightmare #Million Dollars

My mother had heard all about miniskirts but had never seen one so I took her for lunch at Alvaro's [in Chelsea]. We walked down the King's Road and waited 10 seconds for our first miniskirt and a girl came along with her skirt tucked round her arse. I said: 'What do you think, ma?' And she said: 'If it's not for sale, you shouldn't put it in the window!'
-- Michael Caine

#Girl #Mother #Kings

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

#Men #Games #Obsession

When you're a young actor you ring your agent every evening. It's not like when you're in Hollywood where you do one picture a year. You just hope you get a day on television.
-- Michael Caine

#Years #Actors #Agents

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

#Years #Drunk #Research

Theater acting is an operation with a scalpel, movie acting is an operation with a laser
-- Michael Caine

#Acting #Lasers #Scalpels