Peter O'Toole Quotes

1. (on Ursula Andress) I've had luck with my leading ladies. The real shocker was Ursula Andress, with whom I made "What's New Pussycat". She's a bloody sex symbol and all that, and yet she's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. A real mother hen, looking after everybody.


2. (on Katharine Hepburn) I worship that bloody woman. I've never enjoyed working with anyone so much in my whole life, not even Richard Burton. There were no problems, not a one.

3. If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.

4. Where do I begin? I loved working with Kate Hepburn, which was one of the highlights of my life; Working with Richard Burton in Beckett was another great joy.

5. When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.

6. (on "The 75th Annual Academy Awards") I enjoyed it. The only thing that wasn't enjoyable was in the green room. I said: "Can I have a drink?" "We have lemon juice, apple juice, still or sparkling." I said: "No, I want a drink. No drink?" I said: "All right, I'm f**king off. I'll be back." A man with earphones said: "No! No!" Eventually this vodka was smuggled in. 

7. Writing is a kind of performing art, and I can't sit down to write unless I'm dressed. I don't mean dressed in a suit, but dressed well and comfortably and I have to be shaved and bathed.

8. (on Sophia Loren) Sophia is gorgeous, a marvelously put together machine. But she's a grievous card sharp; in Naples, they're born with a pack of cards. Give her a nudge and she's the funniest woman in the world. A helluva woman!

9. I was apprehensive about bringing off this Homer.

10. Booze is the most outrageous of drugs, which is why I chose it.


11. The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.


12. I wouldn't mind being a lord.

13. (on his "Lord Jim" performance) It was a mistake and I made the mistake because I was conservative and played safe. And that way lies failure. It was a juvenile lead part and I've decided bow at 33 that I'll never become another aging juvenile.

14. I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.


15. It is time for me to chuck in the sponge. To retire from films and stage. The heart for it has gone out of me: it won't come back.

16. It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.

17. Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.





18. I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.

19. I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV.

20. My dear sir, it haunted me for the rest of my life.





21. If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it. If you give up drinking, don't go moaning about it. Go back on the bottle. Do. As. Thou. Will.

22. I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

23. My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.







24. I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.

25. I hitched to London on a lorry, looking for adventure. I was dropped at Euston Station and was trying to find a hostel. I passed the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and walked in just to case the joint.

26. The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.

27. (his house rules for a New Year's Eve party at his Hampstead home) Fornication, madness, murder, drunkenness, shouting, shrieking, leaping polite conversation and the breaking of bones, such jollities constitute acceptable behavior, but no acting allowed. 

28. For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.


29. The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.

30. Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

31. There is a legend. And to protest is daft.

32. Irish women are always carrying water on their heads, and always carrying their husbands home from pubs. Such things are the greatest posture-builders in the world.

33. I can't stand light. I hate weather.

34. I am human, all too bloody human.

35. Films were never in my budget. Didn't occur to me till much later. I hoped for a long, good life, which I've had and I'm having as an actor. I didn't expect the rest.

36. I can make the best French toast.

37. Stardom is insidious. It creeps up through the toes. You don't realize what's happening until it reaches your nut. That's when it becomes dangerous.

38. The script sits in front of you. The writer's translated into ink what is in his spirit and his soul and his mind. Bum. I come along, I pick it up, and the ink goes into my eyes, into my mind, into my body, flows around and that part starts to inhabit me. And I know a good part when I see one.

39. It's very inconvenient because every time I finish, let's say, a chapter of a book, I think I'm going to ring Richard and then realize: Oh, Christ, I've buried him. I buried him last year.

40. I found him perhaps the least terrifying man I've ever met in the theater - because at first glance I could see through him and he could see through me, and he knew that I knew that he knew. Look, love, I've been bullied all my life by bigger experts than Larry Olivier, I can assure you, and he's just got to get in line.

41. I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.

42. My professional acting life, stage and screen, has brought me public support, emotional fulfillment and material comfort. It has brought me together with fine people, good companions with whom I've shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.

43. I loved doing "My Favorite Year", which was great fun, and "The Ruling Class", which I made with all my chums.

44. I do not choose to be a common man…it is my right to be uncommon - if I can…I seek opportunity - not security…I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed…to refuse to barter incentive for a dole…I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopias…

45. We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting: "Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure".

46. I once knew a fellow who committed robbery with violence, and he was sentenced to a long prison stretch and 12 strokes of the cat. He'd been injured during the robbery, so they put him in hospital to make him better so that they could make him worse. During the administration of the cat, he fainted after six strokes, and the doctor put him in hospital again. And he got very friendly with the nurses and the doctors, and after a while they got him well enough to go back and take the next six strokes. I saw him afterward and I said: "Oh, Jesus - that bloody law, that bloody judge!" But he said: "I don't want the fellow who made the law, and I don't want the fellow who passed the sentence. All I want is the fellow who held the bloody whip".

47. I love working with young people which to me is a big kick.




48. We were in the Arabian Desert for nine months. And I was having the time of my life. It could have been an archeological expedition, a military expedition.

49. I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.

50. No one can take Jesus away from me.

51. If I was to be an actor, I would love to be like Peter O'Toole.

52. For a young actor it was intimidating. But! You look into the eyes and you see actors know actors. It's like playing jazz. You really have to go there with your trumpet and compete.

53. Books have been written about that so-called renaissance at the Royal Court Theatre. Bollocks. I watched this appalling bunch of strange young men creeping around, talking pompously.


What do you think of Peter O'Toole's quotes?


Feel free to comment and share this blog post if you find it interesting!