A biography for Theodore Bikelhasn’t been written yet.
“I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other.”
“Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?”
“I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sing about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.”
“No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.”
“I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.”
“We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.”
“I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel.”
“An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'”
“By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.”
“While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice.”
“You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.”
“If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.”
“'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?”
“I don't speak out because I am an actor nor will I keep silent because I am an actor. I respect my profession, but it endows me with no special privileges; but it also does not limit me or muzzle me. I am a person and a citizen with the attendant responsibilities of voice and vote.”
“In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.”
“I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.”
“Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.”
“You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.”
“I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.”
“But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.”