John Gielgud Quotes

#1. Most of my friends seem to be either dead, extremely deaf or living on the wrong side of Kent.

John Gielgud

#2. I think the young actor who really wants to act will find a way ... to keep at it and seize every opportunity that comes along.

John Gielgud

#3. When I first went to America in 1928, there were spittoons everywhere. I remember avoiding spit as it flew past me in Times Square. Very unattractive.

John Gielgud

#4. Your English style will no doubt put all the other gentlemen to bed. I speak figuratively, of course.

John Gielgud

#5. Ingrid Bergman speaks five languages and can't act in any of them.

John Gielgud

#6. Being another character is more interesting than being yourself.

John Gielgud

#7. N MY early boyhood I was enraptured by the great fairytale illustrators of the period: Arthur Rackham, Edmond Dulac, Kay Nielsen. As a schoolboy, I was to discover Aubrey Beardsley, and I was extremely fond of an edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream with most imaginative drawings by Heath Robinson,

John Gielgud

#8. You can be good in a good movie, you can be good in a bad movie, you can be bad in a bad movie, but never, ever, be bad in a good movie.

John Gielgud

#9. Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.

John Gielgud

#10. I'm sure there isn't an after-life. If there were, Ivor Novello would have got a message to us.

John Gielgud

#11. Usually one must go to a bowling alley to meet a woman of your stature.

John Gielgud

#12. Before you can do something you must first be something.

John Gielgud

#13. I never accept lengthy film roles nowadays, because I am always so afraid I will die in the middle of shooting and cause such awful problems.

John Gielgud

#14. It is very hard to cast a number of plays adequately from the same company of actors without several parts being miscast.

John Gielgud

#15. I am all in favour of spontaneity, providing it is carefully planned and ruthlessly controlled.

John Gielgud

#16. One's self-image is very important because if that's in good shape, then you can do anything, or practically anything.

John Gielgud