Gielgud's Quotes

#1. As we at all times criticise the Premier for his management of home affairs, call Mr Butler a fool for his Budget, find fault with Beecham's conducting, or Gielgud's performance, can we not, sometimes, say that our cricketers are not quite so brilliant as usual?

Margaret Hughes

#2. 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

#3. Now the Gielgud Theater is a very famous old theater, because it was originally called the Globe, and the Globe is where my mother made her very first professional appearance in London, was at the Globe Theater.

Angela Lansbury

#4. When I came into the acting profession, it was quite hierarchical. You didn't sit at the same table as the leading actor. Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud ... these were very, very intimidating and powerful people.

Helen Mirren

#5. Fucking?
Sorry. Sexual intercourse? Coitus? The union and rhythm of our genitals?

Jewel E. Ann

#6. Being asked to play one of the butlers is like being picked to play for England. All you have to do is think of the great butlers from the past - Terry-Thomas in 'How To Murder Your Wife,' John Gielgud in 'Arthur' and Denholm Elliott in 'Trading Places.'

Mark Williams

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

John Gielgud

#8. I've almost lost several times but come through that. Being able to play your way through the tournament is really able to help.

Serena Williams

#9. I started being interested in acting when I heard the voices of Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud and Sir Alec Guinness. I've had the great privilege of working with Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Anthony Hopkins. These are people who inspire the work that I do.

Kenneth Branagh

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

John Gielgud

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

John Gielgud

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

John Gielgud

#13. There is no corner too quiet, or too far away, for a woman to make sorrow in it.

Amelia Barr

#14. Everyone needs a place to let go and unwind from life, mine happens to be where pencil meets paper.

Brandy Nacole

#15. I like to be busy. I once shared an agent with the late Sir John Gielgud, who, at 96, was apparently still ringing up, saying, 'Hello, Gielgud here, any work?' Good on him. We've got to keep working. If we retire, there'll be nobody to play the old wrinklies, and that would be a dreadful shame.

Charles Dance

#16. Those who will not dance will have to be shot

Sun Ra

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

John Gielgud

#18. John Gielgud told us this story about Mae West. She was asked, 'Do you ever smoke after you've had sex?' She answered, 'I never looked.

Christopher Isherwood

#19. I consider myself to have one of the greatest voices in the industry.

Lady Gaga

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

John Gielgud

#21. 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

#22. Being molded into something God wants you to be is such a moving force that your whole personality would change. Joy, peace, strength, compassion, the light, the road ... all would touch your life like a moving orchestra. Breathing life into your soul.

Phil Mitchell

#23. My mother was madly adventurous. My father was an actor - he worked with Gielgud - and my mother came from a very wealthy family. She definitely wasn't meant to marry an actor, but she eloped with him one lunch-time.

Francesca Annis

#24. Being traded is like celebrating your 100th birthday. It might not be the happiest occasion in the world, but consider the alternative.

Joe Garagiola

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

John Gielgud

#26. When the court that handpicked you to be president tells you you've overstepped your bounds, you've overstepped your bounds.

Jon Stewart

#27. Kind words don't cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Blaise Pascal

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

Ian McKellen

#29. 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

#30. I'm not a fool, no matter what you people think of the Thuvhesit,' Akos snapped, his cheeks going ruddy as he picked up the practice blade. 'You think I'm going to just let you set me up for a fall?'"

p184

Veronica Roth

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

John Gielgud

#32. But as I grew up as a child, falling in love with the theater and Shakespeare, my heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud.

Patrick Stewart

#33. One mistake is all they see.

Joyce Rachelle

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

John Gielgud

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

John Gielgud

#36. 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

#37. 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

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

John Gielgud