Quotes from Michael Caine

If someone is very upper-class, you have a stereotype of him which is probably true. If someone has a working-class accent, you have no idea who you're talking to.

People say I've 'retained' my Cockney accent. I can do any accent, but I wanted other working-class boys to know that they could become actors.

To be a movie star, you have to carry a movie. And to carry a movie where you play the title role is the supreme example.

I've had such a great time, I'd like to come back as me - and do it all over again.

Don't sit as if you have nothing to say. You should be bursting with things to say. You just choose at this particular place and time, not to say them.

I wear a baseball cap all the time, which I would never normally wear, and I walk very fast.

I spent my entire time reading books and going to the cinema, just to escape.

By the time the Oscars are on I'll be seventy. How many more chances am I going to have to get nominated for an Oscar?

I regard myself as someone who is retired but who occasionally goes out to work.

When you reach the top, that's when the climb begins.

Every time you get a movie, you get a medical. So you know, you know you're alright for a couple of weeks.

I wouldn't make an anti-American film. I'm one of the most pro-American foreigners I know. I love America and Americans.

I prefer to remake flops. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was a remake of a flop, and The Quiet American is a remake of a flop.

I've always loved reprehensible people because they're so much more interesting to play on screen.

I'm the audience's representative on earth.

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

The standing ovation threw me... to be held in such regard in a town so full of talent is quite something.

Hollywood is a cross between a health farm, a recreation center and an insane asylum. It's a company town, and I happen to like the company!

Sometimes, in a part, everything comes together.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

I read books like mad, but I am careful to to let anything I read influence me.

My closest friends are Roger Moore, who is an actor, Sean Connery, who is an actor, Terry O'Neill, who is a photographer, Johnny Gold, who was the boss of Tramp, and Leslie Bricusse, who is a composer.

I've made the transition from star to character actor and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Am I a car aficionado? No: for me, cars have always been just for transport. I didn't even know anyone who had a car until I was 14 or 15.