Top 25 Michael Gambon Quotes

I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

I’ve had a private pilot’s license for years and flown all round the U.K. and over to France.

I can’t remember any of the films I’ve done. You go from one to another, and they all blend in to a big mass. You remember the costumes because you remember how you felt – that Western I did with Kevin Costner where I wore the big hat and the two guns, I remember that.

Maybe that is why kids like Dumbledore: because he is funny rather than a miserable old sod with a long white beard.

Paul Schofield said something like, ‘If I’m not acting in a play, I don’t really exist.’ Those weren’t the exact words, but he meant it’s only when I’m acting in a play that I’ve got something to say about the world. And then why should I talk, when people can come to see it?

I promise myself that I would go and do a play every year.

I don’t play classical guitar. But I do in my mind. I’ve got it on a stand.

There’s no subtext in ‘Harry Potter,’ really; it’s all magic – anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it’s a magic spell. It’s quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn’t say much for acting, does it?

I fell in love with Alan Ayckbourn the day I met him and, starting with ‘The Norman Conquests,’ went on to do eight plays with him. He tells you just what you want to know and has a brilliant way of solving problems.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

I like causing trouble. It’s the teddy boy in me. I used to be a teddy boy. Feeling slightly inferior and wanting to cause a bit of bother and get some action going on in the room rather than get bored stiff. Does that make sense?

I’m very flower-like. I love classical music. I go to ballet and I cry. There’s nothing so beautiful.

People should be shrouded in mystery. Especially actors. No, hang on, maybe actors should be blown up.

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.

I have been in five Harry Potter films and never read a ‘Harry Potter’ book. If you are an actor, all you have is the script you are given. If you read the book, you might get disappointed about what’s been left out.

Television has dried up for my generation, so it’s plays and films.

When I was doing ‘Tales from Hollywood’ at the National, I was invited to dinner by the choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan. He told me I had the heart of a dancer and asked me if I’d like to come on at the end of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ as a friar. I said I’d love to, but sadly, MacMillan died shortly after.

I want to be good all the time, so I feel anxious. But if you weren’t like that, you’d be dead, wouldn’t you? If you went out happy down the road, la la la. I’ve never been like that. I don’t want to be.

I live in fear of being a contented passenger. I’d rather get parts I can’t play.

I sometimes think the theatre is more demanding because it requires things you don’t have in films, like it requires you to make the people in the front row believe you and not look an idiot to them while the people right at the back can hear you.

I am a theatre actor, but the last ten years I’ve taken parts in movies because it keeps me in money.

Oh yeah, I’d love to be a comedian. I’ve done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

There were no spells at my school, just a smack in the mouth.

Richard was in heavy, heavy costume, he could hardly sit, you know, and I turned up and they put me in two layers of silk, so I played him much lighter – you know, floating around in a pair of slippers, a bit of a hippy.

I just play him as myself, I don’t ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.