110 Mind-Blowing Anthony Hopkins Quotes That You Should Bookmark

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.

Never , Think

  

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.

Life , Me , Think

  

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.

  

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

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

Life

  

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.

  

I love life because what more is there?

Life

  

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.

Life

  

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

  

I was called 'Dumbo,' like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school.

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I just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I've stuck with that for the last 50-odd years.

Music

  

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

Time

  

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.

Like , Personality

  

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

  

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

  

I do admire Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen, but I'm a philistine. I like the good life too much; I'm not good at going on stage night after night and on wet Wednesday afternoons.

Life , Like

  

I have dual citizenship; it just so happens I live in America. 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.

Like

  

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.

Me

  

Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we're atheist. Our existence is beyond our understanding. No one has an answer.

  

I couldn't say I ever dreamt of becoming a composer, a pianist, or anything else for that matter. I have the kind of brain where nothing is set in stone.

  

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

Life , Like

  

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

  

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

Life , Peace

  

In the theatre, people talk. Talk, talk until the cows come home about journeys of discovery and about what Hazlitt thought of a line of Shakespeare. I can't stand it.

  

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

  

Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.

  

Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. Knowing the text so well and trusting that the instinct and the subconscious mind, whatever you want to call it, is going to take over.

  

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.

Time

  

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he's terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he's a terrific actor.

Like , Think

  

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.

Never , Time

  

I'm devious, cruel, cunning and addictive.

  

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

  

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

  

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

  

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

  

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

Think , Time

  

I came here in 1974 to do a play, and then I went to L.A. I really like living in America. I feel more at home here than anywhere else.

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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.

Like , Me , Think

  

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

  

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

  

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart - they were wonderful actors. They didn't act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful.

Like , Think

  

I know that the arts are important. I'm not denying that, but I can't associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

  

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

  

I worked with Steven Spielberg on Amistad... he seemed so very secure in himself that he let me do things.

Me

  

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

Me

  

I'm the slowest driver in the world.

  

Today is the tomorrow I was worried about yesterday.

  

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone.

  

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.

  

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

  

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I'd follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I've been very lucky.

Me , Think

  

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

  

This industry has been really good to me. It's been a great life. I'm not through yet. I'm ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

Life , Me

  

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.

Life , Time

  

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.

Life , Like , Music

  

A conductor can't be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

  

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.

Like

  

I know that some actors and directors like to have intensity on set. I don't, particularly. Certainly, if they want that, that's fine, but I can't work like that.

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I like to take it easy.

Like

  

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.

Think

  

I don't know why they gave me a knighthood - though it's very nice of them - but I only ever use the title in the U.S. The Americans insist on it and get offended if I don't.

Me

  

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

  

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.

Character

  

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

  

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.

Think

  

We're always looking over our shoulders, 'what they will think, what the press will think, what will this one - am I making the right career move?' When you're young you have to do all that to survive, I suppose.

Think

  

I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called 'Equis.' And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, 'I'm home.' I felt really at peace here.

Peace

  

I once asked a Jesuit preist what was the best short prayer he knew. He said "Fuck it." as in "Fuck it, it's in Gods hands.

  

I wouldn't use the word 'scared' for my role as Hitchcock, but it was my most insecure. Taking on such a formidable, giant personality such as Hitchcock; he was one of the great geniuses of world cinema. Sheer genius.

Personality

  

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies.

  

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, 'I want to get out and become like him'. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

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I hope I would not be so arrogant as to doubt anyone's religion or belief.

  

I spent two years in the military service, then I trudged around in repertory for quite a while. I somehow wound up at the National Theatre, though, and then I was definitely on my way.

  

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

  

It will be the kiss by which all others in your life will be judged... and found wanting.

Life

  

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.

  

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

Me

  

I've felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father's family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.

Family , Life , Like

  

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

  

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.

  

People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life.

Life

  

I tend to get bored quickly, which means I must be boring.

  

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I'm blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Never

  

We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active.

  

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.

Life , Me , Think

  

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

Life

  

I'm a pretty tough guy, you know. I'm a pretty hard man. I've got a lot of compassion, but I don't waste time with people.

Time

  

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.

Think

  

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.

Think

  

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.

Never

  

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

  

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort - I think it keeps you going.

Life , Think

  

I come from - I came from Wales, and it's a strong, butch society. We were in the war and all that. People didn't waste time feeling sorry for themselves. You had to get on with it. So my credo is get on with it. I don't waste time being soft. I'm not cold, but I don't like being, wasting my time with - life's too short.

Life , Like , Time

  

I never make conscious decisions.

Never

  

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

Life , Me , Think

  

Today,is the Tomorrow I was so worried about Yesterday

  

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.

  

Today is the tomorrow we feared yesterday.

  

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn't bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn't have any brains. I didn't know what I was doing there. That's why I became an actor.

  

It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you're going to do a day's work and at the end of it, it's going to be good.

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