Top 26 quotes by Alec Guinness

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An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.
Alec Guinness

Acting , Ego , Personality

An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
Alec Guinness

Two , Heaven , Theatre

Failure has a thousand explanations. Success doesn't need one.
Alec Guinness

Needs , Thousand , Explanation

We live in an age of apologies. Apologies, fake or true, are expected from the descendants of empire builders, slave owners and persecutors of heretics, and from men who -in our eyes- just got it all wrong. So, with the age of 85 coming up shortly, I want to make an apology. It appears I must apologize for being male, white, and European.
Alec Guinness

Men , Eye , Apology

I don't know what else I could do but pretend to be an actor.
Alec Guinness

Actors , Knows

A refurbished Star Wars is on somewhere or everywhere. I have no intention of revisiting any galaxy. I shrivel inside each time it is mentioned. Twenty years ago, when the film was first shown, it had a freshness, also a sense of moral good and fun. Then I began to be uneasy at the influence it might be having. The first bad penny dropped in San Francisco when a sweet-faced boy of twelve told me proudly that he had seen Star Wars over a hundred times. His elegant mother nodded with approval. Looking into the boy's eyes I thought I detected little star-shells of madness beginning to form and I guessed that one day they would explode.

'I would love you to do something for me,' I said.

'Anything! Anything!' the boy said rapturously.

'You won't like what I'm going to ask you to do,' I said.

'Anything, sir, anything!'

'Well,' I said, 'do you think you could promise never to see Star Wars again?'

He burst into tears. His mother drew herself up to an immense height. 'What a dreadful thing to say to a child!' she barked, and dragged the poor kid away. Maybe she was right but I just hope the lad, now in his thirties, is not living in a fantasy world of secondhand, childish banalities.
Alec Guinness

“”. Book by A Positively Final Appearance, 1999.

Movies , Star Wars

All creative people hate mathematics. It's the most uncreative subject you can study.
Alec Guinness

People , Hate , Creative

There seems to be no end to the senseless wickedness done on this little planet in a minor solar system, and we puny mortals appear to be decreasing in importance so far as the universe is concerned.
Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness (1998). “My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor”, Penguin Mass Market

Done , Littles , Wickedness

A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.
Alec Guinness

Hands , Motive , Sleeves

I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.
Alec Guinness

Lasts , Trying , Obscurity

The applause of all but very good men is no more than the precise measure of their possible hostility.
Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness (1998). “My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor”, Penguin Mass Market

Men , Good Man , Applause

I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me.
Alec Guinness

War , Stars

An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness (1986). “Blessings in Disguise”, New York : Knopf

Men , Two , Children

A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.
Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness (1996). “Blessings in disguise”

Voice , Silver , Trumpets

Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.
Alec Guinness

Play , Lucky , Roles

An actor is no more than an assortment of odds and ends which barely add upp to a whole man. An actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child, and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who for an hour or two, can call on heacen and hell to mesmerise a group of innocents.
Alec Guinness

Audience , Actor Acting