Theodore Bikel

“On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.”

“No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.”

“Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.”

“I always sang, I always acted, I always played.”

“As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.”

“What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.”

“Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.”

“I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.”

“Every actor wants to direct.”

“All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.”

“I am not a specialist but a general practitioner in the world of the arts.”

“One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way.”

“No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation.”

“I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.”

“Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?”

“No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.”

“Accents. I'm very good with accents. I'm exceedingly good.”

“For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles.”

“I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures or that the Jewish song is better than the song of my neighbor.”

“I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.”