Michael Gambon Quotes

Actors, we like stories, we like storytelling, we love being a part of the story, and if you give us a story that's interesting then we'll want to do it.

I'd love to do a film. I'd love to play a character that I know the beginning, middle and end of.

I always wanted to tell stories and act.

Soaps are the best. They really are. If you can do a soap, well, you can do anything. You have to learn pages of dialogue very quickly.

So I just play the character, I play the lines.

'Ugly Betty' has been the most important thing I've ever done, easily. I was able to do more with one character than I can ever imagine doing again - Hilda was hilariously funny and emotionally deep... I really got to showcase what I could do with a character.

I'm just always learning lines. I've learned to flag the really crucial scenes, and I start figuring them out and committing them to memory as soon as I get them.

Learning lines is my biggest challenge.

There's nothing more thrilling than watching great actors say things that you wrote and bring them to life.

I'm always trying to memorize lines, whether I understand them or not.

I like a lot of good dialogue if it is well-acted.

All you ever really want is a great character and great writing. As an actor, that's the juiciest sandwich you could ever ask for.

Every actor just wants good writing.

I'm an actor who plays an intriguing character, not a political pundit.

I love challenging films, really. I'd prefer to do some gritty, challenging roles. That would be awesome and really fun.

Reading great dialogue as an actor is such a rare privilege.

I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries.

When you see something that is well-written, the actors can get behind it.

I'd love to do a really juicy drama that's just really real. On the comedy side, I'd love to do something like '21 Jump Street.' I cannot stop watching that movie. Really funny, really extreme comedies are definitely my favorite.

I like character-driven stuff. It doesn't matter, the size of the part.

I'd play the same character for ten years if the words and the moments that I'm playing are authentic.

If I'm serious, yes, I'd like to have done what Shakespeare did... to act and write. You learn so much from acting. One of our great writers, Alan Bennett, does both supremely well. When I write a story, I tend to speak it aloud as I'm writing it.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That's the way I always work.

Any great character is the combination of a brilliant actor and the right writing.

What I truly get excited about is not the genre of a movie or the size of a part - it's character. I like to find characters.