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I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.

Theodore Bikel

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Theodore Bikel
Age: 91 †
Born: 1924
Born: May 2
Died: 2015
Died: July 21
Actor
Businessperson
Film Actor
Musician
Politician
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Trade Unionist
Vienna
Austria
Theodore Meir Bikel
Give
Giving
Yiddish
Survive
Determined
Fighting
Chance
Language

More quotes by Theodore Bikel

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You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.
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I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.
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I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.
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I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
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We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
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What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.
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John Huston was the kind of director that totally left you alone. Not every actor always does it right, every time, but most of the time he was re-directing someone. He was making tight adjustments, and not even in terms of interpretation because he knew that by the time that the character had been filmed... well, he got it right when he cast you.
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As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
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I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.
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I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.
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I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.
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If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.
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Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.
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Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.
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In my world, history comes down to language and art.
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Every actor wants to direct and produce, but I made a conscious decision when I was in college to understand the 'business' of 'show business.'
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'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?
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Audiences are audiences.
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An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
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Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.
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