A biography for Michael Cainehasn’t been written yet.
“When I look in the mirror, I see someone who's happy with how he looks, because I was never one of the handsome Hollywood people. And I've had success as I've gotten older, because I'm able to play characters. I no longer get the girl, but I get the part.”
“I was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Imagine signing that autograph! You'd get a broken arm. So I changed my name to Michael Caine after Humphrey Bogart's 'The Caine Mutiny,' which was playing in the theater across from the telephone booth where I learned that I'd gotten my first TV job.”
“I felt a tremendous sadness for men who can't deal with a woman of their own age.”
“One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.”
“Funny things happen to you in movies for silly reasons.”
“The first thing I'll do if I want to look really crappy is, I don't wear any makeup at all.”
“I started with the firm conviction that when I came to the end, I wanted to be regretting the things that I had done, not the things I hadn't.”
“Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.”
“To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example.”
“Alfie was the first time I was above the title; the first time I became a star in America.”
“The three actors I admire the most are all dead. Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and the French actor, Jean Gabin. They're all very natural, sort of masculine without being overly macho.”
“I'll always be there because I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.”
“I don't think you retire from movies; movies retire you.”
“Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.”
“Books were my window on the world. Growing up at the Elephant and Castle, which was very rough, my paradise was the library.”