Quotes from Michael Caine

I just love to go home, no matter where I am, the most luxurious hotel suite in the world, I love to go home.

At age 11, I went to a Jewish school. I speak Yiddish. I'm Church of England Protestant. My father was Catholic, and my mother was Protestant. My wife is a Muslim.

Obsession is a young man's game, and my only excuse is that I never grew old.

Some men just want to watch the world burn

The first actor I ever saw was The Lone Ranger. I thought: "That's what I want to do."

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.

I'm always slightly envious of people who become extremely rich without anyone knowing who the hell they are, like financiers.

Hey, I always say: if you want a quiet life, become a monk.

I come from the slums; I come from a hard background; I come from a poor family; and I was a soldier.

Let me put it this way: If you're sitting in a movie and you're watching me, and you say, 'Isn't that Michael Caine a wonderful actor?' then I've failed.

I'm a frustrated stand-up comic. If you hand me a microphone and I get one laugh, then I'll go on for 20 minutes.

I was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. Imagine signing that autograph! You'd get a broken arm. So I changed my name to Michael Caine after Humphrey Bogart's 'The Caine Mutiny,' which was playing in the theater across from the telephone booth where I learned that I'd gotten my first TV job.

I am in so many movies that are on TV at 2:00 a.m. that people think I am dead.

One of the main things about Cockney is, you speak at twice the speed as Americans. Americans speak very slow.

When I look in the mirror, I see someone who's happy with how he looks, because I was never one of the handsome Hollywood people. And I've had success as I've gotten older, because I'm able to play characters. I no longer get the girl, but I get the part.

A man should dress in a way that you don't notice. He looks good and you don't know why. But it's the tailoring, the materials, and the clothes.

For me, the performance was always playing different people. And so when I got older, was no longer the romantic leading movie star, it became more and more interesting for me, the characters I played, you know?

When you're a movie star and you're young, you are always playing someone who's a better fighter, a better lover, a better everything than you.

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

A man's body may grow old, but inside his spirit can still be as young and as restless as ever.

I'm a sort of boy next door. If that boy has a good scriptwriter.

In the sixties, everyone you knew became famous. My flatmate was Terence Stamp. My barber was Vidal Sassoon. David Hockney did the menu in a restaurant I went to. I didn't know anyone unknown who didn't become famous.

The trouble with women? Elbows.

If you're a movie star, you get the girl, you lose the girl, and then you get her back. But if you're a character like me, you lose the girl, then you get another one, then you get another one, then you lose them all, then you lose your life.