Omar Sharif Quotes

1. Working gets in the way of living.




2. This is one of the factors that also made me very much want to make this film, apart from the fact that I loved it. If the boy hadn't been Jewish and the man hadn't been Muslim, it wouldn't have made any difference to the film. I don't think it's relevant, really.

3. I can't say I gave up totally my passion for women but almost.




4. I don't think any actor feels comfortable watching themselves in movies. You must be very narcissistic. The problem with your own opinion of yourself is that contrary to the normal spectators, when you watch a film you are in, you only watch yourself.

5. I don't know what sex appeal is. I don't think you can have sex appeal knowingly. The people who seduce me personally are the people who seem not to know they're seductive, and not to know they have sex appeal.

6. Actually, I want today to be like yesterday...Is that asking too much?


7. I never fell in love with another woman. I cannot have a relationship with a woman if I'm not in love...I'm a very particular person, I'm not very much interested in short adventures with women or girls. I have to fall in love with someone in order to have a relationship with her.

8. I didn't want to be a slave to any passion anymore. I gave up card playing altogether, even bridge and gambling - more or less. It took me a few years to get out of it.

9. I don't know what women are attracted to. I can't tell, but certainly I have no notion of having sex appeal or being seductive in any way.

10. When one sees what happens in the world between the religions, the different religions - killing each other and murdering each other, it's disgusting and as far as I am concerned it's ridiculous. So I thought I might be useful, I believe in God and I believe in religion, but believe religions should belong to you. The extraordinary thing is that the Jews believe that only the Jews can go to paradise, the Christians believe that only a Christian can go to paradise and the Muslims believe that only the Muslims can go to paradise. Now why should God, in his great justice, make somebody born that cannot go to paradise - it is absurd. Please forgive me I don't mean to say it's absurd, people made it absurd.

11. I see only defects because I'm not following the scene as it were. I'm not following the other person. It's like the best thing to clarify this is the theater.

12. I definitely want to do more theatre now. Or, two weeks in a film for a remarkable amount of money.

13. I'd rather be playing bridge than making a bad movie.

14. It made me the hero of the whole of France. To head-butt a cop is the dream of every Frenchman.


15. Aggressive feminists scare me.


16. (on Peter O'Toole) The very prototype of the ham.

17. Fidelity is a virtue which should be frequently proved, but not always.

18. Women know when they've got the menopause but men don't quite know. They know it afterwards.

19. I had too many big passions in life and it gets in the way of work. You can't concentrate properly on the one thing.

20. My philosophy is that when I go out of my room, I'm prepared to love everybody I meet, unless they're bad.

21. I've stopped (playing bridge) altogether. I decided I didn't want to be a slave to any passion any more except for my work. I had too many passions: bridge, horses, gambling. I want to live a different kind of life, be with my family more because I didn't give them enough time.

22. The reason it has relevance is because I, as a popular Arab personality - the Arab people like me and respect me - thought it was time for me to make an ever so tiny statement about what I thought about this whole thing.

23. I want to live every moment totally and intensely. Even when I'm giving an interview or talking to people, that's all that I'm thinking about.

24. I lived in America for a long time. Only ten per cent of all Americans have a passport. In other words, ninety per cent never left America. They don't know anything. The typical Middle Eastern man is far more intelligent.

25. I love to be with my son and my grandchildren, like normal people. I have no particular idea of what I represent to other people. It's very mysterious to me. I don't understand it.

26. There are lots of wonderful old Italian actors. You don't need to take an Egyptian to play an Italian actor.





27. I said to (George W. Bush), even before he entered Iraq: "Forget about all that. We, the Arabs...are not like regular countries. You will drown there". He didn't believe me.

28. They didn't accept me theory - not a theory, but just a thought I had about this character. I noticed that this man only exists when the boy comes into the grocery.

29. He read his mind. He's a strange sort of man, isn't he? It's not just the advice and the wisdom that he has.

30. I stopped making movies because for the last twenty five years I've been making a lot of rubbish because I was in debt all the time. You know I used to gamble quite a bit and then I was always broke. I was always one film behind my debts and so at some point you know I had to work all the time to support my family and myself and all my expensive tastes and then I decided that it became ridiculous at some point. It got to the stage where my own grandchildren use to make fun of my films, which is very serious. They used to say, the previous one was terrible grandfather but this one is even worse so I decided it was time to stop and keep some dignity, especially vis a vis my grandchildren and so I decided to wait for something decent to come - something that I'd like, that I would feel enthusiastic about.

31. I'm very wary about giving advice. I think it's very dangerous to give advice to people, except if you know them very well.




32. This character in the film, these things that he says which sound like advice and wise things, they are very common for Orientals. It's all the tradition.

13. I was a lonely man living out of suitcases in hotels and when you arrive in a new place and you don't know anyone, the only place where you can go if you're a well known person to have dinner alone is a casino. You go to the casino, have dinner by yourself, no one criticizes you and then you play a little bit to give yourself some emotion to fight the boredom of being by yourself, get some excitement. That's all.


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