Michael Gambon Quotations

I just play him as myself, I don't ease myself into any role really. I stick a beard on and play me.

Every part I play is just a variant of my own personality. No real character actor, of course, just me.

I learn the lines that JK Rowling or whoever writes them, and say them.

Yeah, I like causing trouble. It's the teddy boy in me. I used to be a teddy boy. Feeling slightly inferior and wanting to cause a bit of bother and get some action going on in the room rather than get bored stiff.

I'm an anorak. I've always been an obsessive collector of things. Richard Briers collects stamps. I collect cars and guns, which are much more expensive, and much more difficult to store.

I am a theatre actor, but the last ten years I've taken parts in movies because it keeps me in money.

I live in fear of being a contented passenger. I'd rather get parts I can't play.

Richard was in heavy, heavy costume, he could hardly sit, you know, and I turned up and they put me in two layers of silk, so I played him much lighter - you know, floating around in a pair of slippers, a bit of a hippy.

Television has dried up for my generation, so it's plays and films. You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.

I belong to quite a lot of learned societies. We collect firearms and discuss them at dinners and clubs and things.

My only memories of school are of being beaten, of being hit in the playground, of masters poking their fingers in my chest all day.

There were no spells at my school, just a smack in the mouth.

I've always tried to be an actor who... I just plod on and try to keep my mouth shut, mind my own business. I find the whole thing about people's lives... I can't understand it. I'm always astonished that people want to know anything about me.

A child did approach me in a restaurant in Cornwall, but he thought I was Gandalf.

I'm very flower-like. I love classical music. I go to ballet and I cry. There's nothing so beautiful.

Maybe that is why kids like Dumbledore: because he is funny rather than a miserable old sod with a long white beard.

There are more important ways of earning a living, aren't there? Like being a neurosurgeon. But some plays are very important, aren't they?

There's no subtext in 'Harry Potter,' really; it's all magic - anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it. Doesn't say much for acting, does it?

When I was doing 'Tales from Hollywood' at the National, I was invited to dinner by the choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan. He told me I had the heart of a dancer and asked me if I'd like to come on at the end of 'Romeo and Juliet' as a friar. I said I'd love to, but sadly, MacMillan died shortly after.

Oh yeah, I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

I promise myself that I would go and do a play every year.

Television has dried up for my generation, so its plays and films.

I just hate the idea of being well known. I know that is almost impossible if you're an actor who has done okay, but I've always fought against it.

All actors say they're concerned about the state of the theatre, but what they're really concerned about is that there'll be less work around.

Certainly, I seem to need to do a play a year. I feel wrong if I haven't got one planned.

I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

I have been in five Harry Potter films and never read a 'Harry Potter' book. If you are an actor, all you have is the script you are given. If you read the book, you might get disappointed about what's been left out.

I fell in love with Alan Ayckbourn the day I met him and, starting with 'The Norman Conquests,' went on to do eight plays with him. He tells you just what you want to know and has a brilliant way of solving problems.

I find it difficult to remember lines. When I'm doing a long speech for television, I sometimes have an earpiece with someone feeding me the text. But I can get by in the theatre if I study hard for a couple of months.

I can't remember any of the films I've done. You go from one to another, and they all blend in to a big mass. You remember the costumes because you remember how you felt - that Western I did with Kevin Costner where I wore the big hat and the two guns, I remember that.

I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me.

Theater actors are just tolerated. You have to be a movie star to be a celebrity.

I sometimes think the theatre is more demanding because it requires things you don't have in films, like it requires you to make the people in the front row believe you and not look an idiot to them while the people right at the back can hear you.

I've played quite a lot of crooks and killers, and that's quite interesting. Then Dumbledore is the complete opposite, isn't he? He's a nice old man.

The theatre starts every night at half past seven, and I like the rhythm of going to the theatre, parking the car, going to the stage door; I've grown up with all of that. I'd love to do more theatre - I mean, I shouldn't be telling the world that I can't remember lines any more, but I find it more and more difficult, so I don't know.

People who have read the books get miserable because of all the bits that have been cut out. So I just read the script. That's the best way.

People should be shrouded in mystery. Especially actors. No, hang on, maybe actors should be blown up.

There were certainly no spells at my school. More like a smack in the mouth.

I've had a private pilot's license for years and flown all round the U.K. and over to France.

I want to be good all the time, so I feel anxious. But if you weren't like that, you'd be dead, wouldn't you? If you went out happy down the road, la la la. I've never been like that. I don't want to be.

I like causing trouble. It's the teddy boy in me. I used to be a teddy boy. Feeling slightly inferior and wanting to cause a bit of bother and get some action going on in the room rather than get bored stiff. Does that make sense?

I don't play classical guitar. But I do in my mind. I've got it on a stand.

You get used to being lazy doing films, but classical theatre's going to finish me off.

Paul Schofield said something like, 'If I'm not acting in a play, I don't really exist.' Those weren't the exact words, but he meant it's only when I'm acting in a play that I've got something to say about the world. And then why should I talk, when people can come to see it?

There's no subtext in Harry Potter really; it's all magic, anything can happen. Why do I say this? Because it's a magic spell. It's quite nice in a way. There is a real freedom to it.

Like a heartbeat. Something inside me. Some dream. I think it's being a dreamer as a child. Dreamy kids become actors, don't they?

For an actor to remain a child is rather important. It's a childlike, dreamy thing, acting, if you think about it. It's the sort of thing children fantasise about, playing cowboys and Indians in the street. I think that acting is just a highly refined development of that.

I never met my theater fans. I'm out the stage door five minutes after the curtain goes up. So that's it. I don't even know who comes, but thank God they do come. I can't tell. I keep my head down. I don't meet them. The fans from "Harry Potter" are kids who stop me in the street. I love that. That's terrific. I was amazed how many do.

I used to be gay, but I was forced to give it up, because it made my eyes water.

There are some actors who are rehearsal actors, and some who are not. I am not. Having said that, I don't know what I am talking about.

The main problem is gluing the beard on. It takes 15 minutes, but I could have a really complicated scene to play and worry more about the beard.