Ian Mckellen Time Quotations

I have little routines in the theater. Once I've established something, like the order of putting on makeup and a costume, I have to invariably do it in the same order every time, even if I only did it by chance the first time round.

To be allowed for the first time in your later career to play leading parts in extremely popular movies is not a situation to worry about.

The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses.

I'm not someone who wears shades all the time and ducks into a darkened car in case I'm recognized - that would be absolute misery.

'Lord of the Rings' was about saving the world, big time, big duties.

Every time you work is a challenge. There's a constant worry about it, and it's a side of acting I don't like.

I used to think 'King Lear' was an analysis of insanity, but I don't really think it is. When Lear is supposed to be at his most insane, he is actually understanding the world for the first time.

I was a shy gay man at a time when it was illegal to be gay.