Quote

I never knew how good it is to be unknown until now. The last time I was unknown I was too busy trying to become known to realize the advantages of obscurity.

Alec Guinness

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alec Guinness
Age: 86 †
Born: 1914
Born: April 2
Died: 2000
Died: August 5
Actor
Autobiographer
Character Actor
Film Actor
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Alec Guinness de Cuffe
Time
Knew
Known
Obscurity
Lasts
Advantages
Last
Unknown
Become
Busy
Trying
Advantage
Good
Realize
Never
Realizing

More quotes by Alec Guinness

Image
An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
Alec Guinness
Image
We live in an age of apologies. Apologies, fake or true, are expected from the descendants of empire builders, slave owners and persecutors of heretics, and from men who -in our eyes- just got it all wrong. So, with the age of 85 coming up shortly, I want to make an apology. It appears I must apologize for being male, white, and European.
Alec Guinness
Image
I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me.
Alec Guinness
Image
Best performance of the year: Aston Villa v. Milan, September 1994
Alec Guinness
Image
All creative people hate mathematics. It's the most uncreative subject you can study.
Alec Guinness
Image
Failure has a thousand explanations. Success doesn't need one.
Alec Guinness
Image
There seems to be no end to the senseless wickedness done on this little planet in a minor solar system, and we puny mortals appear to be decreasing in importance so far as the universe is concerned.
Alec Guinness
Image
Much of the day I have busied myself making notes on the small parts in Shakespeare, often nameless, which are rewarding to the actor if only he'll not dismiss them as beneath his dignity. If I can work it up into a talk I might call it, 'Only a cough and a spit ' -the phrase so often used by actors to explain away a lack of opportunity.
Alec Guinness
Image
An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.
Alec Guinness
Image
A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.
Alec Guinness
Image
Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.
Alec Guinness
Image
I don't know what else I could do but pretend to be an actor.
Alec Guinness
Image
A person who is keen to shake your hand usually has something up his sleeve.
Alec Guinness
Image
Styling is designing for obsolescence.
Alec Guinness
Image
That's no moon. It's a space station.
Alec Guinness
Image
The applause of all but very good men is no more than the precise measure of their possible hostility.
Alec Guinness
Image
My contribution to film has always been negligible.
Alec Guinness
Image
An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.
Alec Guinness
Image
Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.
Alec Guinness