A biography for Anthony Hopkinshasn’t been written yet.
“Oh yes. I'm an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought.”
“What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.”
“I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense... I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.”
“I couldn't say I ever dreamt of becoming a composer, a pianist, or anything else for that matter. I have the kind of brain where nothing is set in stone.”
“I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.”
“I'm always cast in these strange men... that's not me, really.”
“We're always looking over our shoulders, 'what they will think, what the press will think, what will this one - am I making the right career move?' When you're young you have to do all that to survive, I suppose.”
“My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.”
“I've felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father's family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.”
“It's such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you're going to do a day's work and at the end of it, it's going to be good.”
“I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down, drink a glass of vodka and smoke a cigarette.”
“I'm married. My wife, Stella - a beautiful woman. She's brought a lot of peace to my life, a lot of wisdom.”
“I'm interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometime nightmare quality of our lives.”
“Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he's terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he's a terrific actor.”
“My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.”
“I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort - I think it keeps you going.”
“A conductor can't be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.”
“I was called 'Dumbo,' like the elephant, as a child because I couldn't understand things at school.”
“I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called 'Equis.' And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, 'I'm home.' I felt really at peace here.”
“Well, everyone likes movies when they're a little kid.”