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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
Chance
Language
Give
Giving
Yiddish
Survive
Determined
Fighting

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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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For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles.
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You learn more from the flops than from the hits.
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I glory in the fact that a human being has multiple talents and exercises them all with a degree of integrity and artistic proficiency. That's what I do.
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You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.
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Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?
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I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
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I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.
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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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But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
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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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Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.
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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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I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
Theodore Bikel
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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.
Theodore Bikel
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I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.
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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.
Theodore Bikel
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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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But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.
Theodore Bikel