Peter O'Toole

I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony. I do not crave security. I wish to hazard my soul to opportunity.

I've never looked for women. When I was a teenager, perhaps. But they are looking for us, and we [men] must learn that very quickly. They decide. We just turn up. Never mind the superficialities _ tall and handsome and all that. Just turn up

For me, life has either been a wake or a wedding.

I'm the most gregarious of men and love good company, but never less alone when alone.

I saw a man killed in front of my eyes just before my eighth birthday.

I know nothing at all about women. They are an amazing, beautiful mystery.

My favorite food from my homeland is Guinness. My second choice in Guinness. My third choice - would have to be Guinness.

We were doing it under the most extraordinary circumstances, but the first out of the tent in the morning would be David Lean. He said to me on the very first day of shooting, Pete, this is the beginning of a great adventure.

I have my very own Oscar now to be with me until death us do part.

I woke up one morning to find I was famous. I bought a white Rolls-Royce and drove down Sunset Boulevard, wearing dark specs and a white suit, waving like the Queen Mum.

All the minor sports injuries you acquire over the years begin to multiply like flies when you get over 70.

I once knew a fellow who committed robbery with violence, and he was sentenced to a long prison stretch and 12 strokes of the cat. He'd been injured during the robbery, so they put him in hospital to make him better so that they could make him worse. During the administration of the cat, he fainted after six strokes, and the doctor put him in hospital again. And he got very friendly with the nurses and the doctors, and after a while they got him well enough to go back and take the next six strokes. I saw him afterward and I said: "Oh, Jesus__hat bloody law, that bloody judge!" But he said: "I don't want the fellow who made the law, and I don't want the fellow who passed the sentence. All I want is the fellow who held the bloody whip.

I'm not working-class: I come from the criminal classes.

I can't stand light. I hate weather. My idea of heaven is moving from one smoke-filled room to another.