Top 136 Quotes & Sayings by Peter O'Toole

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish actor Peter O'Toole.
Last updated on December 21, 2024.
Peter O'Toole

Peter Seamus O'Toole was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic and with the English Stage Company. In 1959 he made his West End debut in The Long and the Short and the Tall, and played the title role in Hamlet in the National Theatre's first production in 1963. Excelling on the London stage, O'Toole was known for his "hellraiser" lifestyle off it.

I'm not a French singer.
Money is always a pressure.
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. — © Peter O'Toole
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.
I know nothing at all about women. They are an amazing, beautiful mystery.
I can make the best French toast.
I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.
Omar Sharif and I spent nine months in the desert, day after day for nine months.
I had a pretty hilariously gloomy few years in the '70s.
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.
I love working with the young.
My own favorite is something called Rogue Male.
My plumbing is no one's business but my own.
The only thing I've ever been interested in teaching anyone in life is cricket.
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. — © Peter O'Toole
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.
When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.
There's always a hunger, when you're young, to go from peak to peak and avoid the valleys.
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.
I was apprehensive about bringing off this Homer.
I've stopped acting, but I don't think I've finished using my voice. I could, and probably will, record the whole of Shakespeare's sonnets. They live at the side of my bed and are my constant companions.
My dear sir, it haunted me for the rest of my life.
I can now tell from the envelope whether or not it is a good script.
I take whatever good part comes along.
I loved doing My Favorite Year, which was great fun, and The Ruling Class, which I made with all my chums.
The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.
No one can take Jesus away from me. There's no doubt there was a historical figure of tremendous importance, with enormous notions. Such as peace.
I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star.
I have my very own Oscar now to be with me until death us do part.
I put steam on the table by being an actor. That is how I live. The longer I live, the more expensive it becomes. So I do my work. And I can't be immensely picky. How many beautiful scripts come in one's lifetime? I have had more than anybody, practically.
The good parts are the people who don't make do. They're the interesting people. Lear doesn't make do.
I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.
I'm Irish. That means I'm Catholic. But, truth is, now I'm a retired Christian.
I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.
There is a legend. And to protest is daft.
The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.
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.
Actors have to stay optimistic. The moment we start thinking otherwise, we're dead.
I never found it easy to learn my lines. It was slog, slog, slog.
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.
I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV. — © Peter O'Toole
I tell my children to avoid theatre and go into cinema and TV.
I've never looked for women. When I was a teenager, perhaps.
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.
My father was a racetrack bookie.
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.
It's my job, it's what I do, it's what I'm on earth to do and it's who I am.
Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!
Acting is just being a man. Being human. Not forcing it.
I can't stand light. I hate weather.
I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.
I wouldn't mind being a lord. — © Peter O'Toole
I wouldn't mind being a lord.
I saw a man killed in front of my eyes just before my eighth birthday.
If I'm not at my study by 10:00, 10:30, forget it, I can't write a word.
Pope Paul III was the greatest thief in the history of the church.
If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.
I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.
Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.
My favorite food from my homeland is Guinness. My second choice in Guinness. My third choice - would have to be Guinness.
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.
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.
For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.
I love working with young people which to me is a big kick.
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