Ian McKellen quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Ian McKellen on Wise Famous Quotes.

When you're on stage with an audience, the director's nowhere to be seen. He's onto the next job.

You put anyone in the outfit, and they look like Gandalf. Not that clever.

My acting stopped being about disguise and became about truth which suits the camera, so my film career took off when I came out.

I often get mistaken for Dumbledore. One wizard is very much like another.

I've got a waistline to develop.

If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.

Gandalf's a good guy, and it's a good part. He says the right things, he believes the right things. An actor can have fun with it.

WOLF BROTHER is the kind of story you dream of reading and all to rarely find.

I don't think many people will re-read 'The Da Vinci Code.'

There's lots of Tolkien that must be confusing to people.

I'm the sort of person who doesn't write in ink. I only write in pencil, so it can be rubbed out.

Doing some of the 'Lord Of The Rings' press junkets got a bit claustrophobic.

The performance is created by the director. The actor is the material. And I think that has to be true.

There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that.

I'll never put my memoirs in print.

I've always had very catholic tastes.

In Singapore, Malcolm X type of activity would be extremely difficult because the government can be very harsh on lawbreakers.

You might be surprised by how interested young people are in older people.

I don't normally take to Yorkshiremen.

Gandalf is in Middle-earth to keep an eye on everybody, and that can be a rather serious matter.

I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.

I'm dead against the idea that you should try to "cure" people of being gay.

I've always felt that 'X-Men' was about something serious. It wasn't just fantasy.

I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.

There are some fantastic parts for older actors.

What's upsetting about an autobiography is that the final chapter is always missing. I mean, you want the death, don't you?

In the '50s and '60s, the life of a gay man was a secret. Homosexuality was illegal, so you didn't draw attention to yourself.

If you've got Mystique as your girlfriend the fun you could have in bed - I've just imagined X-Men 3 might open with me in bed with Patrick Stewart.

Acting is no longer about lying. It's now about revealing the truth. People are at ease with me now. Honesty is the best policy.

Acting is a very big part of what human beings do. A dog is always a dog, but we're always changing.

The spirit of the four hobbits in 'Lord of the Rings,' I suppose I miss that.

Most of the time when you do a job, a play or a film, you're wondering, "Will there be an audience?"

I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying, 'This is fiction.'

My own death threats have declined considerably.

Until I came out, my acting was all about disguise, and thereafter it became about telling the truth.

I'm cheaper than Anthony Hopkins.

'Macbeth' was a very lucky play for me.

Gandalf saves the world and saves the soul of the world, really.

People who are truly horrible are often the most interesting people in the room. You look at them and just say, 'Why?'

No one needs to feel sorry for me or anyone else who has fallen victim to success.

I suspect the base that I'm working from is not particularly one of inquiry, but of memory of what I did last time.

Gandalf is ever-present in my life. I like it.

I think New York audiences are some of the brightest in the world, and certainly the most enthusiastic.

Gandalf the Grey was always the guy I prefer. Gandalf the White was driven to do a particular job, whereas Gandalf the Grey is a bit more humane.

The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.

Every anti-gay remark from the Church gives the thug a license to be cruel.

My ambition is to get better as an actor.

'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties.

Every time you work is a challenge. There's a constant worry about it, and it's a side of acting I don't like.

No actor wants to play to an empty house.

Bolton School has a great tradition in the liberal arts.

Shakespeare's villains are fabulous because none of them know that they are villains. Well, sometimes they do.

When I appeared in 'Coronation Street,' I lived in Manchester and enjoyed it very much.

It is so painful watching yourself act, particularly because you can't do anything about it, it's all done and dusted.

Eventually, before I die, I hope to have written about every part I've played.

I certainly don't disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine - that's up to them.

Tony Blair is not a villain, but he's played the part very well.

Anyone who thinks Peter Jackson would fall for market forces around him rather than artistic integrity doesn't know the guy or the body of his work.

The audience's expectations are ever-present.

I love working in New York.

To know you are in the company with people who love and care for each other, as well as for whatever they are working on, is almost essential.

I think I'm a bit gruffer than I used to be, and I'm certainly older.

In any human-rights campaign, everybody must do what they can.

I don't have Gandalf the White's certainty about everything.

Capitalism offers you freedom, but far from giving people freedom, it enslaves them.

When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the U.K. and got accepted by one of them ... And here I am, still at it.

I have lots of fans, they are mostly under the age of 12, boys and girls.

There's something wholesome about the theatre.

Who does understand life?

It was wrongly assumed that I wished to become some sort of leader among gay activists, whereas in reality I was happier to be a foot soldier.

Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.

Success in the movies has pushed me to places I didn't know I was allowed to go.

When I came out, I told my stepmother Gladys, and she just said she had known for years and was glad I wasn't lying anymore.

I'm a latecomer to popular TV. This is rather new to me, being in a sitcom. It's been an ambition of mine.

I had never come across the 'X-Men' comics till I was asked to play Magneto, so I just jumped into that job.

Tolkien is as good as Dickens at sketching a scene.

I got intrigued by working in small theatres.

I like sleeping a lot.

I got better as an actor, and still I'm getting better. That's only been possible because there's always been work.

Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.

If I say often enough that I'm going to be in 'King Kong,' I'm hoping that Peter Jackson will take the hint.

I'm an eccentric English actor, and there's a lot of us around.

My reaction to 3D is subtly. Things don't come out at you, but rather you - The audience come into the film.

I live for the text. It's my job.

[There's] nothing special about an actor's imagination, except that he uses it a lot.

How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I'm portraying in the film or play.

When I've been asked what should be on my gravestone, I've said: 'Here lies Gandalf. He came out.' Two big achievements.

People on television have trouble with fame because audiences think they're their mates.

Television can take anything. It can take the most exaggerated of storytelling forms.

I can't make up my mind whether I want to dance like Josef Brown or dance with Josef Brown.

I'd never read 'Lord of the Rings' until I was asked to play Gandalf, so I didn't really know it was a frightfully famous book.

I love the Broadway audiences, who relish live drama and don't hesitate to display their enthusiasm.

Splendid architecture, the love of your life, an old friend ... they can all go drifting by unseen if you're not careful.

Some relationships get easier as you get older, depending on what sort of person you are. I don't think I've got any better at them.

I'm not someone who wears shades all the time and ducks into a darkened car in case I'm recognized - that would be absolute misery.

There have been many gay knights in the past - like Sir Noel Coward or Sir John Gielgud.

You can always pick out stage actors at the Oscars: they know how to walk.

Actors don't, in fact, retire, do they? It took me a while to remember that.

There are deaths in public places on the grounds that the victim is gay.

Very, very rare that you do a job knowing that the audience is desperate for you to do that job. Most films you make don't get released, is the fact.