Quotes By Michael Caine

You get paid the same for a bad film as you do for a good one.

At 69, I got the girl! And it wasn't a 68-year-old girl, either.

I used to get the girl; now I get the part. In 'The Quiet American' you may have noticed I got the part and the girl. It's a milestone for me, because it's the last time I'm going to get the girl.

A lot of my best parts I've been the second choice for, so you never get too egotistical about anything.

I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead.

If you go away on location for three months and your wife stays at home, you've made a whole new load of friends and she's made a whole new load of friends and you get home and you're kind of strangers.

I'm a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

There's quite a lot of bad stuff written about me. My wife even says a lot of bad stuff about me. But she is wonderful.

I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

My most useful acting tip came from my pal John Wayne. Talk low, talk slow, and don't say too much.

I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I admired Marlon Brando as I grew up. I though he was one of the finest screen actors around.

Save your money. You're going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.

I regard myself as someone who is retired but who occasionally goes out to work. In fact, I'm offered so much good stuff that it's not so occasional.

I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.

The American cinema in general always made stories about working-class people; the British rarely did. Any person with my working-class background would be a villain or a comic cipher, usually badly played, and with a rotten accent. There weren't a lot of guys in England for me to look up to.

If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.

I see myself as 38, but you don't notice it.

I am a great admirer of other actors, but I never compete with other actors. I always compete with what I did last, and I'm my own most vicious critic. So I'm always trying to do it better.

When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.

Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.

I think what is British about me is my feelings and awareness of others and their situations. English people are always known to be well mannered and cold but we are not cold - we don't interfere in your situation. If we are heartbroken, we don't scream in your face with tears - we go home and cry on our own.

I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.

If you're a movie actor, you're on your own - you cannot control the stage. The director controls it.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

To disappear your complete self into a character is quite difficult. I've tried it 85 times, and I've succeeded two or three times.