The Wit and wisdom of Gielgud
On acting:
"It's my whole life. It's all I can do."
"What is fun about the theatre is that we get our prizes while we are
alive to enjoy them."
"I have been extraordinarily lucky. I've had sort of three goes, which
is rare, very fortunate for an actor, and in every kind of work."
"I spoke rather well but rather too well, and fell in love with my own
voice. All that took me years to get away from."
"I've been able to take no notice of the flattery and praise and
concentrate on the things that were wrong. I'm frightened, now
that I'm old, that people will be so respectful."
On Lord Olivier:
"He was very much more extrovert. He had a tremendous actual
physical side of acting, which I'm not good at at all."
When James Villers assumed Olivier's Victor role in Private Lives,
Olivier asked Sir John what his performance was like. Sir John
replied: "Oh. Larry, I've never seen the part of Victor so perfectly
realised. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean that..."
Visiting an ailing Olivier he proclaimed: "Larry! You're dead! I mean...
you're dying! I mean... my poor darling Larry, you don't look
at all well!"
On having a West End theatre named after him:
"Walking down Shaftesbury Avenue recently I have not known any
of the names billed outside the theatres. Now I will know at
least one."
On his role in Arthur:
It brought me fan mail from all over the world. It still does, which
is extraordinary, really... I turned it down a couple of times... I
thought [the script] was rather smutty, rather common."
"They just wanted a posh-looking Englishman saying rather racy
things."
"Every time I said 'no' the price went up and finally, when I
accepted, they said 'how clever of you' which wasn't the case at all."
On Richard Burton's performance as Hamlet:
"We'll have dinner when you're better, I mean ready."
On art:
"David Hockney did a drawing of me when I was 70 and I thought
that if I really looked like that, I must kill myself tomorrow."
On old age:
When asked to join Glenda Jackson and Gyles Brandreth at the
House of Commons for his 90th birthday celebrations, Sir John
joked: "Yes I would be delighted to join them. You see, all
my real friends are dead."
On appearing naked in Peter Greenaway's film Prospero's Books:
"It got a bit cold but the nudity soon ceased to be surprising. I don't
think it's offensive, do you?"
On life:
"I'm a flibbertigibbet, I bolt through cheap thrillers, but I couldn't
read Troilus And Cressida or Coriolanus with any great pleasure."
"One's self-image is very important because if that's in good shape,
then you can do anything, or practically anything."
"Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory
when you can forget yourself."
"When you're my age, you never risk being ill, because everyone then
says, 'Oh he's done for'."
"In my last big parts, I kept thinking, 'Suppose I die in the
middle? What is it going to cost everyone?'"
"One's had the odd horror and mishap, but on the whole I have
very, very much to be thankful for. That I can still go on working
at this age is extraordinary really; the only sadness is so many
of my contemporaries are gone. Most of the actors that I knew well
and worked with have died."
"I intend to go on for as long as I can because apart from pottering
in the garden with Martin (his partner of 40 years) there isn't
a great deal else I have ever wanted to do."
Bricks dropped
On Ingrid Bergman "She speaks five languages, and can't act in any of them."
To Clement Attlee, when Prime Minister
"Tell me, where are you living these days?"
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