Alec Guinness

“You must have a twinkle in your eye, a naughtiness – and a sincerity, of course.”

“I'm not a film star, I am an actor. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity.”

“An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for a while, gives people a sense of renewal.”

“The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time.”

“I prefer to be a character actor. It's much more interesting.”

“An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment – his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.”

“Basically, I'm a shy person, and I'm not a great actor. I'm a character actor.”

“I try to get inside the skin of the character, and let that be the guide.”

“I was blessed with a sense of my own ridiculousness.”

“Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.”

“One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is.”

“A career in the theatre is a risky business.”

“The true actor is a man who can believe everything.”

“I am not a recluse. I am not a hermit. I am a gregarious loner.”

“Failure has a certain dignity; it's success that is corrupting.”