Michael Caine Quotes

20 Sourced Quotes

You're your first best audience, long before anybody else hears you. So don't be an easy audience. Keep asking for more.

Michael Caine
Presenting the Oscars was the most nerve-racking job I have ever done in show business. It's very much a live show: they have comedy writers waiting in the wings, and as you come off between presentations, they hand you an appropriate gag to tell.

Michael Caine
If you really want to become an actor, but only providing that acting doesn't interfere with your golf game, political ambitions and your life, you don't want to become an actor. Not only is acting more than a part time job, it's more than a full time job. It's a full time obsession.

Michael Caine
I am often asked which of my films has come closest to my own ideal of performance, and I always answer, 'Educating Rita.'

Michael Caine
To me, 'Educating Rita' is the most perfect performance I could give of a character who was as far away from me as you could possibly get and of all the films I have ever been in, I think it may be the one I am most proud of.

Michael Caine
I see a frog and think it's not really worth killing their whole body for just those little legs.

Michael Caine
I love the start of autumn when the trees in my garden change the colour of their leaves in one last dazzling display.

Michael Caine
Not only is acting more than a part-time job, it's more than a full-time job. It's a full-time obsession.

Michael Caine
Movie actors earn their living and learn their craft through listening and reacting.

Michael Caine
You've got to be flexible. Directors do a massive amount of planning and homework, and if after all that your director decides to throw it all out of the window and shoot spontaneously, then you must follow his lead.

Michael Caine
Yes, your fears do diminish with age — 'cause your memory goes and you forget what you're afraid of!

Michael Caine
When becoming a character, you have to steal. Steal whatever you see. You can even steal from other actors' characterizations; but if you do, only steal from the best.

Michael Caine
It's a lesson in life—don't look back, you'll trip over.

Michael Caine
You couldn't tell if I was lying. But I could tell if you were.

Michael Caine
I have no sense of competition with other actors. I love to see great performances. The only sense of competition I have is with myself.

Michael Caine
Acting is not a competition; everything must be done for the good of the film or else everybody loses.

Michael Caine
In film, other actors' performances really are not your concern. If the other actor isn't giving you what you want, act as though he were.

Michael Caine
Be like a duck, my mother used to tell me. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.

Michael Caine
Actors, what do we do? We study behavior. I never went to drama school. I learned my acting on the subway, watching how people moved and what they did.

Michael Caine
My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award.

Michael Caine