Terence Stamp Quotations

As a boy I believed I could make myself invisible. I'm not sure that I ever could, but I certainly had the ability to pass unnoticed.

In my youth I dreamed of being an illustrator.

I was very disappointed that so much of the work I did on The Haunted Mansion didn't arrive in the final cut.

Peter Ustinov was the first really positive influence in my career. He was real and he bore witness to it. The things he said to you, he lived them.

My star was kind of fading towards the end of the '60s and suddenly I got this call from Fellini, who just appeared to kind of love me!

It wasn't until I saw James Dean that I began to think that maybe I could actually do this. Movies didn't have to be just this fantasy with this impossibly handsome guy.

A lot of newspapers say, Terence Stamp is playing himself and we're as bored as he is.

A lot of young directors, they're not confident; they're not open to the emotional level of the scene.

A lot of people only see me as villains.

I wasn't at all sure I could make that sort of leap into that sort of comic book reality.

I've been doing Tai Chi on and off for 20 years. The fundamentals of all martial arts are the same.

It's such a performance to bring stuff into America. It's a great luxury when I am in England.

What I wanted more than anything was a long career.

I work primarily for the camera-it's not something I really talk about a lot, but it's part of the way I am as a movie actor. The camera is my girl, as it were.

When I tested for Billy Budd, I had that kind of confidence that comes with the certainty that you're not going to get something. I was very rough around the edges.

I have to be stretched in some way. There's not enough things that come my way that I fancy.

I've never wanted to become a politician, an interior decorator, I've never wanted to speculate and make a load of money. I just wanted this.

In the case of Elektra I really wasn't sure I could pull it off. There were so many intellectual leaps. My character, Stick, is blind, but he can see better than most people. So I had trouble kind of finding the logic.

Although you have some films that are a real bummer, there's always a film that comes up where it's just heaven.

At this point, it's either for fun or it's for money. I don't take movies that I don't really like.

He's Soderbergh, we're working for him. It doesn't matter what he's doing; we'll see it at the premiere.

I have always had this energy, which I think of as overdrive.

My favorite film is Gene Tierney and Tyrone Power in The Razor's Edge.

Unless I try, I'm never really going to be at ease with myself.

With Fellini, the fear dropped out of my work because it was such a happy experience... hanging out with Fellini, having pasta on the set with Fellini, and going out with Fellini!

Physically, I couldn't fold myself into a gray, invisible bank clerk. I just thought, It's the most amazing part. It's a pity that I'm wrong for it.

To work with a guy like Wyler early in your career was just an incredible thing, because he gave me an amazing amount of confidence.

At the beginning, it was tough for me to actually become an actor. I was so thrilled that I was able to earn my living doing something I truly loved.

I'm very pleased with myself. I did The Collector immediately after Billy Budd, because I thought, Well, I'll let everybody know: This is my range.

I just had the feeling that by the time all these kids grow up, as many of them who love Superman will love Zod. And I think that's come to pass!

I have to know what would've happened if I tried to get into show business. The last thing I was expecting was to have the kind of career I've had.

All actors are incredibly insecure.

The very first film I ever saw was during the war. My mother took me, I must have been about 4, and that was Beau Geste, with Gary Cooper.

I'm still tap dancing. I'm still going.

From the very first movie I ever made to the current time, there have been times between action and cut when I've sensed some kind of new dimension that I haven't been familiar with before.

I loved the scent of the wallflowers in the evening.

Vancouver is the most wonderful place. I put it up there with San Francisco and Sydney as a kind of magic sort of harbor city.