Alec Guinness Quotes

• Failure has a thousand explanations. Success doesn't need one.

  Alec Guinness

  Needs, Thousand, Explanation

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  43 Copy quote

• An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.

  Alec Guinness

  Two, Heaven, Theatre

  54 Copy quote

• We live in an age of apologies. Apologies, fake or true, are expected from the descendants of empire builders, slave owners and persecutors of heretics, and from men who -in our eyes- just got it all wrong. So, with the age of 85 coming up shortly, I want to make an apology. It appears I must apologize for being male, white, and European.

  Alec Guinness

  Eye, Apology, Men

  35 Copy quote

• A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.

  Alec Guinness

  Hands, Motive, Sleeves

  15 Copy quote

• An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.

  Alec Guinness

  Personality, Ego, Acting

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  89 Copy quote

• All creative people hate mathematics. It's the most uncreative subject you can study.

  Alec Guinness

  Hate, People, Creative

  17 Copy quote

• There seems to be no end to the senseless wickedness done on this little planet in a minor solar system, and we puny mortals appear to be decreasing in importance so far as the universe is concerned.

  Alec Guinness

  Done, Wickedness, Littles

  Alec Guinness (1998). “My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor”, Penguin Mass Market

  17 Copy quote

• I don't know what else I could do but pretend to be an actor.

  Alec Guinness

  Actors, Knows

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  21 Copy quote

• I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me.

  Alec Guinness

  Stars, War

  13 Copy quote

• I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.

  Alec Guinness

  Trying, Obscurity, Lasts

  14 Copy quote

• Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.

  Alec Guinness

  War, Men, Vices

  "Fictional character: Prince Faisal". "Lawrence of Arabia", 1962.

  9 Copy quote

• Styling is designing for obsolescence.

  Alec Guinness

  Design, Obsolescence

  5 Copy quote

• The applause of all but very good men is no more than the precise measure of their possible hostility.

  Alec Guinness

  Men, Good Man, Applause

  Alec Guinness (1998). “My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor”, Penguin Mass Market

  15 Copy quote

• An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.

  Alec Guinness

  Children, Men, Vanity

  Alec Guinness (1986). “Blessings in Disguise”, New York : Knopf

  12 Copy quote

• Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.

  Alec Guinness

  Play, Lucky, Roles

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  10 Copy quote

• That's no moon. It's a space station.

  Alec Guinness

  Moon, Space, Stations

  "Fictional character: Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi". "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", www.imdb.com. 1977.

  8 Copy quote

• A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.

  Alec Guinness

  Voice, Silver, Trumpets

  Alec Guinness (1996). “Blessings in disguise”

  12 Copy quote

• Best performance of the year: Aston Villa v. Milan, September 1994

  Alec Guinness

  Years, Theatre, Villa

  Alec Guinness (2001). “A Commonplace Book”

  7 Copy quote

• Much of the day I have busied myself making notes on the small parts in Shakespeare, often nameless, which are rewarding to the actor if only he'll not dismiss them as beneath his dignity. If I can work it up into a talk I might call it, 'Only a cough and a spit ' -the phrase so often used by actors to explain away a lack of opportunity.

  Alec Guinness

  Opportunity, Theatre, Actors

  Alec Guinness (1997). “My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor”, Viking Press

  7 Copy quote

• My contribution to film has always been negligible.

  Alec Guinness

  Film, Contribution

  4 Copy quote

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