Peter O'Toole Quotes & Sayings

#1. Question: How do you know you're God? Answer: Simple. When I pray to him, I find I'm talking to myself.

#2. A victory? What have we won? We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea.

#3. We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure.

Peter O'Toole

#4. People talk about the '60s, but they were merely a mass production of what the '50s had begun.

Peter O'Toole

#5. I wouldn't mind being a lord.

Peter O'Toole

#6. Do.As.Thou.Wilt.

Peter O'Toole

#7. I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.

Peter O'Toole

#8. If I was to be an actor, I would love to be like peter o'toole.

Peter O'Toole

#9. Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

Peter O'Toole

#10. Everyone praises Sachin Tendulkar. He may be a genius in his own right but in my book, Rahul Dravid is the artist. Dravid's defence tactics, his strokes, his cuts, his grace are truly amazing. I'd like to meet the chap sometime and take my hat off to him.

Peter O'Toole

#11. If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.

Peter O'Toole

#12. I've stopped acting, but I don't think I've finished using my voice. I could, and probably will, record the whole of Shakespeare's sonnets. They live at the side of my bed and are my constant companions.

Peter O'Toole

#13. My father was a racetrack bookie.

Peter O'Toole

#14. What I like is bottomless flattery.

Peter O'Toole

#15. Writing is a kind of performing art, and I can't sit down to write unless I'm dressed. I don't mean dressed in a suit, but dressed well and comfortably and I have to be shaved and bathed.

Peter O'Toole

#16. Acting is just being a man. Being human. Not forcing it.

Peter O'Toole

#17. I can now tell from the envelope whether or not it is a good script.

Peter O'Toole

#18. When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.

Peter O'Toole

#19. Omar Sharif and I spent nine months in the desert, day after day for nine months.

Peter O'Toole

#20. It grieves us to produce work that is not perfect.

Peter O'Toole

#21. My dad went at 86. A car killed him. He was crossing the road.

Peter O'Toole

#22. I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.

Peter O'Toole

#23. Irish women are always carrying water on their heads, and always carrying their husbands home from pubs. Such things are the greatest posture-builders in the world.

Peter O'Toole

#24. No one should ever know where conduct ends and acting begins. Conduct unbecoming. That's what acting is.

Peter O'Toole

#25. Do you not know that King Kong the first was just three foot six inches tall? He only came up to Faye Wray's belly button! If God could do the tricks that we can do he'd be a happy man!

Peter O'Toole

#26. It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.

Peter O'Toole

#27. I did quite enjoy the days when one went for a beer at one's local in Paris and woke up in Corsica.

Peter O'Toole

#28. I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.

Peter O'Toole

#29. Actors have given up their clout. Now decision making is in the hands of lighting men, designers, bankers, special-effects people. We need to cut that out and just go with the most able trained actors in the business.

Peter O'Toole

#30. It's a razor's edge, a romance with an old man and a young woman.

Peter O'Toole

#31. One time in the late '50s, when Peter Finch, Laurence Harvey, and I were all offered the same movie role - the assumption being that we weren't friends - we marched up to producer Dino De Laurentiis's door and declared in unison, 'We don't think we're suitable for the part.'

Peter O'Toole

#32. I know nothing at all about women. They are an amazing, beautiful mystery.

Peter O'Toole

#33. Right after I left drama school, I had a job.

Peter O'Toole

#34. Pope Paul III was the greatest thief in the history of the church.

Peter O'Toole

#35. Films were never in my budget. Didn't occur to me till much later. I hoped for a long, good life, which I've had and I'm having as an actor. I didn't expect the rest.

Peter O'Toole

#36. There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

Peter O'Toole

#37. George Eliot is my only steady girlfriend. We go to bed together every night.

Peter O'Toole

#38. I love working with young people which to me is a big kick.

Peter O'Toole

#39. I'm Irish. That means I'm Catholic. But, truth is, now I'm a retired Christian.

Peter O'Toole

#40. Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.

Peter O'Toole

#41. My favorite food from my homeland is Guinness. My second choice in Guinness. My third choice - would have to be Guinness.

Peter O'Toole

#42. He's a scoundrel, young Brad Pitt, who led me, his elderly colleague, astray more than once.

Peter O'Toole

#43. I've done everything that's possible to be done.

Peter O'Toole

#44. All the minor sports injuries you acquire over the years begin to multiply like flies when you get over 70.

Peter O'Toole

#45. There's always a hunger, when you're young, to go from peak to peak and avoid the valleys.

Peter O'Toole

#46. It distresses us to return work which is not perfect.

Peter O'Toole

#47. I never found it easy to learn my lines. It was slog, slog, slog.

Peter O'Toole

#48. You know when you've found a part that you want to play. You know it because the part takes you over. It sits in the script waiting for you to play him.

Peter O'Toole

#49. Every three or four years, I'm hot again.

Peter O'Toole

#50. I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.

Peter O'Toole

#51. My life is littered with copies of Moby Dick.

Peter O'Toole

#52. I saw a man killed in front of my eyes just before my eighth birthday.

Peter O'Toole

#53. I had a son born to me when I was 50, and I thought, 'He needs someone to bowl to him.'

Peter O'Toole

#54. I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.

Peter O'Toole

#55. If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

Peter O'Toole

#56. I've played farce on the stage, but I have never played any sort of comedy on the screen.

Peter O'Toole

#57. I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.

Peter O'Toole

#58. In my day England, Scotland, Wales had 80 drama schools. There are none left. So there's no training, no discipline.

Peter O'Toole

#59. The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.

Peter O'Toole

#60. I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.

Peter O'Toole

#61. It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.

Peter O'Toole

#62. I will not be an ordinary man, because I have a right to be extraordinary.

Peter O'Toole

#63. I can't stand light. I hate weather.

Peter O'Toole

#64. I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony. I do not crave security. I wish to hazard my soul to opportunity.

Peter O'Toole

#65. There may be honor among thieves, but there's none in politicians.

Peter O'Toole

#66. The only thing I've ever been interested in teaching anyone in life is cricket.

Peter O'Toole

#67. I don't go for this auto-cannibalism. Very damaging.

Peter O'Toole

#68. I have my very own Oscar now to be with me until death us do part.

Peter O'Toole

#69. It was a mistake and I made the mistake because I was conservative and played safe. And that way lies failure." "Must do it ... constantly go to the well ... constantly try, try, try. Dare. Dare, Dare. Who dares wins

Peter O'Toole

#70. I have no intention of uttering my last words on the stage. Room service and a couple of depraved young women will do me quite nicely for an exit.

Peter O'Toole

#71. When I'm doing theatre, I prefer to be doing cinema. When I'm doing cinema, I prefer to be doing theatre.

Peter O'Toole

#72. I quite like being old.

Peter O'Toole

#73. No one can take Jesus away from me. There's no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.

Peter O'Toole

#74. I'm a very physical actor. I use everything - toes, teeth, ears, everything. I don't simply mean physical in the sense of movement and vigour. I find myself remembering the shape of a scene by how I'm standing, what I'm doing.

Peter O'Toole

#75. For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.

Peter O'Toole

#76. It was around 1985 before I heard the news of President Kennedy's assassination.

Peter O'Toole

#77. When my father would come home from the track after a good day, the whole room would light up; it was fairyland. But when he lost, it was black. In our house, it was always either a wake ... or a wedding.

Peter O'Toole

#78. Actors have to stay optimistic. The moment we start thinking otherwise, we're dead.

Peter O'Toole

#79. I can make the best French toast.

Peter O'Toole

#80. My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfillment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.

Peter O'Toole

#81. The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.

Peter O'Toole

#82. My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.

Peter O'Toole

#83. I take whatever good part comes along.

Peter O'Toole

#84. Being sober for so many years is getting interesting.

Peter O'Toole

#85. My dear sir, it haunted me for the rest of my life.

Peter O'Toole

#86. If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.

Peter O'Toole

#87. Booze is the most outrageous of drugs which is why I chose it.

Peter O'Toole

#88. I have unqualified admiration for Brad Pitt.

Peter O'Toole

#89. The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

Peter O'Toole

#90. If you do not surrender, I shall be forced to shoot you through the head with a rather large bullet.

Peter O'Toole

#91. When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.

Peter O'Toole

#92. A few years back I was asked if I would go and meet a director and his various acolytes, and it occurred to me halfway through the meeting that what I was doing was auditioning. And I thought, 'Well, hang on buddy. I've done half a century of this.'

Peter O'Toole