Top 100 Olivier's Quotes
#1. If you watch Olivier's interviews, he has this reptilian tongue; it seems too big for his mouth. My pursuit of that became distracting, so I let it go. The thrill was finding the right pair of glasses.
Julian Sands
#2. On Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in a 1948 film: Olivier's idea of introspection was to hood his eyes, dentalize his consonants and let the camera circle his blondined head like a sparrow looking for a place to deposit its droppings.
Robert Brustein
#3. Also, I have found that I really like to work in English. It's very strange because it's exactly the opposite of what I thought it would be like.
Olivier Martinez
#4. But what I really like are old Hollywood movies. Very often I watch AMC.
Olivier Martinez
#5. When you make a movie, you really have to be clever and smart, find something new for the worldwide audience because you aren't making a movie for just France or Germany; it's for everyone in the world.
Olivier Megaton
#6. And what's more I've got no need for anyone to tell me how to do it. I am not interested. You act how you want to and leave me alone to do my own thing.
Olivier Martinez
#7. Especially on 'Taken,' 'Taken' was not a big success the day of its release. It was released in France first, and it didn't do bad, but not as good as it did in the U.S.
Olivier Megaton
#8. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors of our age; he's like Olivier. He's one of those people who can take you into a place where no one else can take you.
Sam Taylor-Wood
#9. When the economy changes, it's not like you want to start eating bad-tasting chocolate.
Olivier Theyskens
#10. It's a matter of time; you adapt to the different culture and different way of life. Human beings are adaptable.
Olivier Martinez
#11. I've admired historical clothes like Victorian gowns since I was a child, and it's what motivated me to go into fashion.
Olivier Theyskens
#12. 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
#13. You don't have to walk me back. I live down the hall." She smiled up at him.
"My mama didn't raise me like that," Paul said, opening the door.
"Actually, your mama has some sense, and would say, 'She lives twenty feet away,' but suit yourself," Mrs. Olivier said.
Mary Jane Hathaway
#14. Seed biscuits and milk! I hated Mrs. Mullet's seed biscuits the way Saint Paul hated sin. Perhaps even more so. I wanted to clamber up onto the table, and with a sausage on the end of a fork as my scepter, shout in my best Laurence Olivier voice, 'Will no one rid us of this turbulent pastry cook?
Alan Bradley
#15. I'm not a fan of action movies. I don't watch many action movies, I don't have a lot of references except for 70s action movies or cinema noir.
Olivier Megaton
#17. Historical costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries look so complicated, but when you see the patterns, it's very systematic. I've always been impressed by how the patterns economize the fabric.
Olivier Theyskens
#18. And I think it is the genius of actors to be able to escape whatever people are expecting of them. Otherwise you become like a factory worker.
Olivier Martinez
#19. A fan once stopped me outside a theatre and gave me as a gift a signed photograph of Sir Laurence Olivier. It was strange, but nice, too.
David Alan Basche
#20. It's like all the signs were telling me that I shouldn't be a boxer, so I quit.
Olivier Martinez
#21. No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.
Laurence Olivier
#22. Taking into account the different approaches to defining the term 'missionary' we can define a missionary as a Christian believer who takes the gospel to those who have never heard it before.
Marius Olivier
#23. We used to have actresses trying to become stars; now we have stars trying to become actresses.
Laurence Olivier
#24. The aim of being a good designer is to have an influence. If you design furniture or lifestyle, you should influence the way people evolve globally. It's good to have an influence.
Olivier Theyskens
#25. You know Gabri, he wears his heart on his sleeve.' In fact, there were times Olivier wondered whether Gabri hadn't been born inside out.
Louise Penny
#26. Olivier was another case of a genius, who couldn't understand why anybody would have any trouble doing this, because for him it came so easily.
James Lipton
#27. I grew up with the great Sir Laurence Olivier, and I think it's fair to say that a lot of actors of my age were influenced by his very individual vocal delivery. He was a showman who would always play to the gallery.
Ian Holm
#28. For at the end of the day, what matters is never the wine, it's always the moment; it's always the people.
Olivier Magny
#29. I'm a very ordinary man who's worked and fed like everyone else. I'm no longer afraid of dying, but death doesn't seem to want anything to do with me, now that I can see no point in living. I'm afraid he's forgotten me.
Emile Zola
#30. I always loved how people like Jon Voight and Laurence Olivier shocked you every time they came on-screen. They were so different each time. That's what I hope to do with acting - be the chameleon and not get stuck in a type.
Julia Stiles
#31. Olivier said that drama is an affair of the heart, or it's nothing, and he was right.
Pam Gems
#32. I played a scene at the end of my first year, and that's how I was discovered.
Olivier Martinez
#33. Art is the way people see things, and I think it's great when individuals can find in fashion something they truly believe is artistic.
Olivier Theyskens
#34. An actor cannot say no, it's against his job. If he wants the part he has to say yes. [But] it's very bad for you to say you can do something and then not do it, so you have to manage to do it.
Olivier Martinez
#35. I like to be lazy. I do like to be busy and really active, but when that's done, you can be sure I will be a lazy boy. I like to take time and relax and enjoy life.
Olivier Theyskens
#36. It's probable that in the artistic hierarchy birds are the greatest musicians existing on our planet.
Olivier Messiaen
#37. There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company.
Ian McKellen
#38. A black dress is beautiful! It's a good choice. It could be the wrong choice at certain events or situations, but it's very rare that you see a girl who looks bad in a black dress.
Olivier Theyskens
#39. I quit after a bad car accident. The thing about boxing is that you can be a star for five or six years, but when you go back to the old life, it's tough.
Olivier Martinez
#40. I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.
Laurence Olivier
#41. When I was a kid, I was watching the movies my parents wanted to watch. I came from a working class family, not specifically educated, so we were watching popular movies. My dad liked cowboy movies, so we were watching cowboy movies. Some of them were amazing. It's a genre of movie I like very much.
Olivier Martinez
#42. It's not only imagination, it's the distortion of the vision. You suddenly think, This person is idealistic, this person is strong, this person has dreams, when you know better most of the time. You put what you want to see on people.
Olivier Martinez
#43. 'Spamalot' was a blip! I've never done anything else like that, and yet it's the only time I've ever been nominated for an Olivier award!
Tom Goodman-Hill
#44. I think my best work has been in France with great men. It's been my great fortune to work with really great men - with Olivier Assayas, Raoul Ruiz, Jacques Rivette. I am tutored by them.
Emmanuelle Beart
#45. Yes, it's true, I've been called the Laurence Olivier of spoofs. I guess that would make Laurence Olivier the Leslie Nielsen of Shakespeare.
Leslie Nielsen
#46. I don't think couture will die. But it should have no pretension that it will conquer the world. It's not something that will disappear because all you need is a thread and a needle to start making something couture.
Olivier Theyskens
#47. It's nice to have some distance with your family. As long as you're closer to them by love.
Olivier Martinez
#48. I always like to preserve my freedom. I've never really been attached to any place; that's probably why I kept moving. I like to evolve.
Olivier Theyskens
#49. Cannes is a sort of gladiators' arena, and that's the fun part of it. When you accept to come here to open the festival, you know you are going to be criticised. I have no problem with the fact that I expose myself and the movie, and it's normal that I can disagree with the way some people feel.
Olivier Dahan
#50. Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest than an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor can possibly get to being a creator.
Laurence Olivier
#51. I went to him in the doorway and embraced him tightly.
"Thank you," I whispered. "You've done so much for us, and we've done nothing for you."
"Don't say that." Vic's hands patted my back. "You're my friends. Nothing else to it.
Claudia Gray
#52. But when you work with the director and the real person who is playing opposite you, it changes everything. You are almost in a working session. I was very comfortable, and that's maybe what helped me to get the part.
Olivier Martinez
#53. I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.
Laurence Olivier
#54. The violence of power is unacceptable only when we see it in action.
Olivier Razac
#55. Otherwise, to be a movie star, it's a lot of compromise and also a lot of headaches. You can't do what you want. You become a prisoner of your fame. This happened to me in France and I don't want it.
Olivier Martinez
#56. Olivier looked at him blankly. But the Chief Inspector had seen that look before. It was, in fact, almost impossible to look blank. Unless the person wanted to. A blank face to the Chief Inspector meant a frantic mind.
Louise Penny
#58. What is funny is when you do a futuristic movie, you immediately get to be fashionable because you're creating something that doesn't exist.
Olivier Theyskens
#61. Maybe this was now normal for Olivier. Maybe every now and then he simply wept. Not in pain or sadness. The tears were just overwhelming memories, rendered into water, seeping out.
Louise Penny
#62. With couture, you feel obligated to design something modern each season, but with Theyskens Theory, I don't question anything. I'm thinking of what I'd like to wear.
Olivier Theyskens
#63. When other boys dreamt of going to the moon or becoming doctors, I wanted to be a designer.
Olivier Theyskens
#64. To be honest, I would like to have worked with Peter Sellers, because when people talk about classic British actors, you talk about Lawrence Olivier, and Peter Sellers was just in the most amazing films.
Daniel Radcliffe
#65. Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.
Laurence Olivier
#66. I want just to be happy and peaceful. And that's not always the case when you're married.
Olivier Martinez
#67. Before, I was so stupid. But, you know, when you have friends who died on the street, you say, okay, let's calm down. It's not the kind of energy I want to have in life. I want to go slower, and longer.
Olivier Martinez
#68. I feel super lucky to be living in New York. I love the city, I love the energy. I always loved it. I had pictures of New York in my bedroom when I was young.
Olivier Theyskens
#69. It is therefore essential to let the 'heart spirit' settle like calm water. Then it becomes a tranquil lake in which the sky is reflected, in which the face of Christ can be seen.
Olivier Clement
#70. I believe in the theater; I believe in it as the first glamorizer of thought. It restores dramatic dynamics and their relations to life size.
Laurence Olivier
#72. I see my friends, my family, my cousins work all day long for very little money, and if I have this problem of not being able to wall on the streets, it's not a big deal.
Olivier Martinez
#73. I'm not a movie star like other actors in the way that I need to walk with a bodyguard.
Olivier Martinez
#74. When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
Laurence Olivier
#76. I wanted to become a champ - I was surrounded by champs in my family and in my neighborhood - and because of this stupid accident, I lost my opportunity.
Olivier Martinez
#77. People sometimes recognize me here, but they are very nice.
Olivier Martinez
#80. I don't like the actors to work together beforehand. I trust my intuition, and I like when the actors are the same.
Olivier Dahan
#81. Suffice it to say, every actor works differently. Laurence Olivier would put on his costume and when the wardrobe was right, he was in character. That sounds superficial, but it's true, and look at the results.
Michael Mann
#82. He's cu-ute." Bree LaRue stumbles sideways, shielding her eyes with one hand. "Aww, look at his hair. And the chin! He's like Laurence Olivier, and a cockatoo. Like if they had a baby?
J.C. Lillis
#83. February 5: Laurence Olivier, his agent Cecil Tennant, and playwright Terence Rattigan arrive in New York to discuss with Marilyn a film of The Sleeping Prince, to be produced in London with Olivier and Marilyn in the starring roles.
Carl Rollyson
#84. My faith is the grand drama of my life. I'm a believer, so I sing words of God to those who have no faith.
Olivier Messiaen
#85. What is sure is that the satellite view of our world and its evolution is now a common reality.
Olivier Theyskens
#86. I'm a painter. I was a graffiti artist, and I painted all over the world.
Olivier Megaton
#87. I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.
Olivier Messiaen
#88. I like thrillers. My style of movies are closer to thrillers.
Olivier Megaton
#89. I figure there are a few actors like Marlon Brando, George C. Scott and Laurence Olivier who have been touched by the hand of God. I'm in the next bunch.
John Forsythe
#90. When it comes to picking wine and cutting through the marketing smokes, bottom line is: two things really matter. First is how the grapes were farmed, and second is whether or not you like it. The rest is vastly BS.
Olivier Magny
#91. The difficulty with telling stories about real people is you have to find a way of mixing yourself into the matter.
Olivier Dahan
#92. Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
Laurence Olivier
#94. I really hated school. I had the feeling I was losing a lot of time.
Olivier Theyskens
#95. I like David Lynch; I like Stanley Kubrick. I'm a big fan of Kubrick.
Olivier Megaton
#96. Solving a problem created by debt ... by creating more debt is a fool's errand.
Olivier Sarkozy
#98. I love these words that just can't be translated from language to language. They seem dignified, grounded, battling against the imperialism of reality.
Olivier Magny
#100. My father was champion of North Africa and he beat the European champ. He was very good, a professional for 12 years. We're from a big family of boxers. My father has seven brothers.
Olivier Martinez
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