Peter O'Toole Quotes

“When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.”

— Peter O'Toole

“The script sits in front of you. The writer's translated into ink what is in his spirit and his soul and his mind. Bum. [Thumps table.] I come along, I pick it up, and the ink goes into my eyes, into my mind, into my body, flows around and that part starts to inhabit me. And I know a good part when I see one.”

— Peter O'Toole

I once knew a fellow who committed robbery with violence, and he was sentenced to a long prison stretch and 12 strokes of the cat. He'd been injured during the robbery, so they put him in hospital to make him better so that they could make him worse. During the administration of the cat, he fainted after six strokes, and the doctor put him in hospital again. And he got very friendly with the nurses and the doctors, and after a while they got him well enough to go back and take the next six strokes. I saw him afterward and I said: "Oh, Jesus-that bloody law, that bloody judge!" But he said: "I don't want the fellow who made the law, and I don't want the fellow who passed the sentence. All I want is the fellow who held the bloody whip.

— Peter O'Toole

“I'm a working stiff, baby, just like everybody else.”

— Peter O'Toole

“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.”

— Peter O'Toole

“If you can't do something willingly and joyfully, then don't do it.”

— Peter O'Toole

I'm Irish. That means I'm Catholic. But, truth is, now I'm a retired Christian.

— Peter O'Toole

“For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.”

— Peter O'Toole

All the minor sports injuries you acquire over the years begin to multiply like flies when you get over 70.

— Peter O'Toole

“The only exercise I take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise.”

— Peter O'Toole

I suggest that an education and reading and facts aren't bad things on which to ponder a few notions.

— Peter O'Toole

“If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”

— Peter O'Toole

“The only thing I've ever been interested in teaching anyone in life is cricket.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I know nothing at all about women. They are an amazing, beautiful mystery.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I can now tell from the envelope whether or not it is a good script.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I love working with young people which to me is a big kick.”

— Peter O'Toole

Always a bridesmaid never a bride my foot!

— Peter O'Toole

“Actors have to stay optimistic. The moment we start thinking otherwise, we're dead.”

— Peter O'Toole

There's always a hunger, when you're young, to go from peak to peak and avoid the valleys.

— Peter O'Toole

“Life turned out much better than I thought. I knew after a little while that I could act.”

— Peter O'Toole

“The common denominator of all my friends is that they're dead.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I have no memories I'm prepared to share with you.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I'm not from the working class. I'm from the criminal class.”

— Peter O'Toole

“When I'm doing theatre, I prefer to be doing cinema. When I'm doing cinema, I prefer to be doing theatre.”

— Peter O'Toole

“A rubber neck is a necessary part of equipment.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I had a pretty hilariously gloomy few years in the '70s.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I had a son born to me when I was 50, and I thought, 'He needs someone to bowl to him.'”

— Peter O'Toole

“I've played farce on the stage, but I have never played any sort of comedy on the screen.”

— Peter O'Toole

“Money is always a pressure.”

— Peter O'Toole

I take whatever good part comes along.

— Peter O'Toole

“I can make the best French toast.”

— Peter O'Toole

“It's a razor's edge, a romance with an old man and a young woman.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I have my very own Oscar now to be with me until death us do part.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I was apprehensive about bringing off this Homer.”

— Peter O'Toole

“When I work with young people, I grab energy from them by the handsful.”

— Peter O'Toole

An Oscar is a symbol that is known in every corner of the world.

— Peter O'Toole

“Every three or four years, I'm hot again.”

— Peter O'Toole

Omar Sharif and I spent nine months in the desert, day after day for nine months.

— Peter O'Toole

“Everyone praises Sachin Tendulkar. He may be a genius in his own right but in my book, Rahul Dravid is the artist. Dravid's defence tactics, his strokes, his cuts, his grace are truly amazing. I'd like to meet the chap sometime and take my hat off to him.”

— Peter O'Toole

“Question: How do you know you're God? Answer: Simple. When I pray to him, I find I'm talking to myself.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I have no intention of uttering my last words on the stage. Room service and a couple of depraved young women will do me quite nicely for an exit.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I did quite enjoy the days when one went for a beer at one's local in Paris and woke up in Corsica.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I can't stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another.”

— Peter O'Toole

“If you do not surrender, I shall be forced to shoot you through the head with a rather large bullet.”

— Peter O'Toole

“I'm a very physical actor. I use everything - toes, teeth, ears, everything. I don't simply mean physical in the sense of movement and vigour. I find myself remembering the shape of a scene by how I'm standing, what I'm doing.”

— Peter O'Toole

“It was a mistake and I made the mistake because I was conservative and played safe. And that way lies failure." "Must do it ... constantly go to the well ... constantly try, try, try. Dare. Dare, Dare. Who dares wins”

— Peter O'Toole

“George Eliot is my only steady girlfriend. We go to bed together every night.”

— Peter O'Toole

“He's a scoundrel, young Brad Pitt, who led me, his elderly colleague, astray more than once.”

— Peter O'Toole

I don't go for this auto-cannibalism. Very damaging.

— Peter O'Toole