A biography for Michael Cainehasn’t been written yet.
“My closest friends are Roger Moore, who is an actor, Sean Connery, who is an actor, Terry O'Neill, who is a photographer, Johnny Gold, who was the boss of Tramp, and Leslie Bricusse, who is a composer.”
“When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.”
“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.”
“If you think you're going to be up for an Oscar, you schedule your moviemaking.”
“I don't work very much, and I just sit here waiting for a script that I can't refuse - and I'm not talking about money.”
“I don't do it often, but I do cry. I also laugh a lot; people tell me I'm funny and I do like to laugh.”
“Do I believe in God? Yes I do. When you've had a life like mine, you have to.”
“A lot of my best parts I've been the second choice for, so you never get too egotistical about anything.”
“Hollywood is a cross between a health farm, a recreation center and an insane asylum. It's a company town, and I happen to like the company!”
“In England, I was a Cockney actor. In America, I was an actor.”
“Anyone can write. But comedy, you've got to do some writing. You get one comedy script to every 20 dramas.”
“The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.”
“I don't meet stockbrokers or carpenters or coal miners; I spend all day with actors, composers and photographers.”
“I'm forever testing myself. As a person and as an actor, I have no sense of competition.”
“My wife, my daughters, even my grandchildren are funny. You've got to keep a sense of humor because anger destroys you.”
“For all my education, accomplishments, and so called 'wisdom'... I can't fathom my own heart.”
“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.”
“Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath.”
“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.”
“My view of actors is that basically they're all harmless lunatics who'd be on the psychiatrist's couch, except that we get this sort of catharsis every six months or so, and we go and be absolutely someone else.”