Ralph Fiennes Quotes

We took Beowulf, the epic poem in Old English, and put it right together with John Gardner's contemporary retelling. If you bring it into today, we really feel that it has something very fresh to say now.

I've always felt that specialization is best left to the insects.

I'd like to think that the notion of inspiration will transcend cultural things that are going on. There's something classic about this movie that I'm hoping reaches kids.

I don't really have one style; I just choose what I like best each time.

I'd never ask an actor to do something I couldn't do - not that I'm the best actor in the world - but if I can do it, then I know that anyone I hire can do these things.

I love things that age well - things that don't date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.

The Christmas story has such power and such appeal every year. There are other stories we get tired of. You think of your favorite movie; you don't want to watch it 15 times.

What makes a book great, a so-called classic, it its quality of always being modern, of its author, though he be long dead, continuing to speak to each new generation.

I've always been a chameleon from book to book, like a director who does different films in the best possible way.

You can never forget the time you're living in because the past is the past and it will never come back. So to adjust your philosophy and creativity in fashion to the time you're living in is the most important thing.

A good story, a story resonant and remarkable, can be remade endlessly to tell new sides of itself for new generations of readers.

Most great plays of the past lose their grip on immediacy; on application to our lives right now.

Actors should be timeless and impersonal.

To have a sense of contemporary ownership of Shakespeare is the most important thing to his work.

My mentality has always been, If I'm not the best at something, then I might as well be the best at something else. I realized that I wasn't going to be an Olympic volleyball player, but I knew I could model at that level.

I would prefer to be forgotten, then rediscovered in a different age.

Man's naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal, and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages.

You don't have to go out there and fit the mold of what a quarterback is supposed to be. Make your own mold and do the best at each role. If you can run with the best and throw with the best, you can be the best quarterback in your own version of the position.

The mark of great sportsmen is not how good they are at their best, but how good they are their worst.

The best thing an actor can be is ready. Be flexible, be ready.

Shakespeare and his work will always be relevant. He wrote those pieces hundreds of years ago and we haven't really changed as humans, have we? We have to deal with love, honour and adultery now - people were the same then, too - that's what's so wonderful and powerful.

The best thing an actor can be is flexible, because all directors are different and all actors are different.

I think that emotion and good stories can cross the times.

Whenever you do a new interpretation of a great, previous text of any kind, you always look for some kind of immediate significance right now.

I rarely buy a shoe that is completely specific to a time and outfit. I generally tend to spend money on good shoes that can go with everything.