Ben Kingsley Quotes

If you have the opportunity as an actor to control your career in any way, then you've won the jackpot.

I have no regrets, except perhaps one: I should have tried harder to be a better actor.

After the 'Golden Compass,' I wasn't sure if I'd ever get another acting job.

I think the hardest thing about being an actor is between jobs when you don't know and wondering if you'll ever work again. It's kind of a crazy business.

I really like writing music. That's kind of like my little hobby. I like that because sometimes you don't really have any control when you're an actor, over what you're doing next, and everything is kind of decided by other people. You're always waiting to hear from people.

But so much of being an actor isn't so great - the auditioning, the rejection, the financial insecurity.

It's a long struggle being an actor; I don't know if I'd ever recommend it to anybody!

The thing with acting is I'm at the liberty of someone who wants to book me. With music, I can do it all the time. With acting, I could, too, if I wanted to write a script and do that whole thing, but music is a constant thing. Acting, I have to audition.

I came to Los Angeles to be an actor, which is, at best, a gamble.

There are many ways to lead a life. It would always be ideal to have a paycheck coming in. But I really love this fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants approach. It's scary and wonderful at the same time. I feel very open to many possibilities.

I really love being in 'Game of Thrones,' but I don't know if it's my big break.

There are times when you get several great, exciting roles; there are times when you don't.

Going through the ranks and all the training you do as an actor, you hope you're going to make it. But there's a part of you that's got to be realistic and say: 'Look, it might not happen to me.'

I'm really lucky because I found myself in a position where I can do whatever I want to do. I can make records, produce records, make movies, or I can do nothing. I'm not a slave to the dollar.

T.V.'s weird because it's both the greatest gig as an actor potentially because it can be all this work for all this time, but there are so many question marks at every stage of the process.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

But all actors go through the process, it's hit and miss, you have achievement and failure.

Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.

I know you hear horror stories about child actors, but I think in my family when I did start acting it was never a big deal.

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.

I write because it feels good, and I don't have a deadline, and I don't have people telling me what they want me to write. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't be very good at it.

I would rather give up acting than become world famous, because I think you pay a very high price. Writing and putting new plays out into the world has informed what I do, and I've had a lot more freedom to play really interesting parts.

I've been a very lucky actor.

Being an actor in L.A. is like being in prison: you go, you serve your time, you try to replicate Johnny Depp's career - and then you move to Paris.

I'm a character actress, plain and simple... Who can worry about a career? Have a life. Movie stars have careers - actors work, and then they don't work, and then they work again.