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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.'

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
Business
Produce
Made
Actor
Every
College
Wants
Decision
Actors
Show
Direct
Understand
Conscious

More quotes by Theodore Bikel

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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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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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I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.
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In my world, history comes down to language and art.
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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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As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
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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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I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.
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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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After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.
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In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.
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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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No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.
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It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
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The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
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I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
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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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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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But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
Theodore Bikel