Quotes

The best thing I did was abuse myself when younger - I dabbled in everything, cocaine, booze, women - because now I don't have to do it anymore.

[on his career playing villains] I suppose I'm primarily known for that but in fact, that would only be half of my career if I was to add it all up.

[when asked what his favorite Stanley Kubrick film was] Cỗ Máy Tội Phạm (1971)! I never saw any of the others.

[on Cỗ Máy Tội Phạm (1971)] It's a remarkable film that has survived as such a classic and I'd be a raving idiot not to be thrilled with that.

He didn't want me at first, told me about the big-name actor he could get, how he was taller than I was - I'm five eight and a half - but I said "That's nothing, I can stand on a box.".

I did a picture I loved called Time After Time (1979), and the people who saw it loved it. We had a big opening in Toronto at the Festival of Festivals - huge - and they gave us a fabulous reception. Great city, Toronto - Mary (Mary Steenburgen) and I loved it there. Great restaurants, great people. The studio hired these so-called 'experts' to tell them how to market the film. And these silly asses took a poll to determine a 'recognition' factor. And more people recognized Jack the Ripper, which was David Warner's role in the movie, than H.G. Wells, who I played in the movie. Hardly anyone recognized the name H.G. Wells, in fact. So they decided to go with a campaign that stressed Jack the Ripper, which was all well and good except that people didn't want to see another movie about Jack the Ripper, and they stayed away in droves. I've got a big piece of that film, but I haven't seen a penny, and I probably never will. However, I did meet my wife making that movie, so I don't really mind!

[on Time After Time (1979)] I got to be the hero in that one. It's a very whimsical part, a wonderful part, H.G. running after Jack the Ripper (David Warner) and meeting this modern woman (Mary Steenburgen). Of course, it's very special to me because I met Mary, we got married, and we had two children. Even though we're not together now, she is the mother of my children and that film is where we met. It's also a damn good film!

[on unsimulated sex scenes in mainstream films, often sourced to his film Bạo Chúa Caligula (1979)] I think that's crap. I think that's pathetic. Go get another job. Listen: We're in the business of illusion. We are illusionists. Seriously, that is absolutely pathetic. You're telling me to do a love scene, you actually have to have penetration? That's absolutely beyond pathetic. If you can't think of any way of making that exciting, you're in the wrong job. That's what I think. I remember when they did Don't Look Now (1973), and they thought that Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie actually made love on camera. It's laughable. They were just two extremely gifted actors who made everybody believe they did and ran with it. There was no way there was penetration on the set. No way. Because that crosses over into a porno picture, and I don't care which way you dress it up.

[on playing psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in Lễ Hội Kinh Hoàng (2007)] I want to make Loomis a man with a tremendous ego. I've met some of these doctors through the years, where there is more ego in it than there is interest in what's best for the patient, and if they can get a book out of it - which of course he has done - it's a bestseller, and that's so much better.

[on Donald Pleasence] I did know Donald. I met him in London at the Royal Court Theatre. He was a tremendous actor - he played those wonderful sinister parts. I particularly remember him in two performances: He was in two great plays, one was written by Robert Shaw called The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and the other was a Harold Pinter play, The Caretaker (1963).

The definition of insanity in Texas is so insane that it's impossible to be insane in Texas.

[on Stanley Kubrick] Probably one of the five greatest directors that ever lived.

There's nobody who's ever going to come close to John Ford.

[on Lễ Hội Kinh Hoàng (1978)] John Carpenter is a master, and he made an extraordinary film.

[on horror movies] I'm not that keen on them, to be honest. I find them tedious, most of them, really kind of schlocky and terrible character development and thin storylines. The ones that I've seen, they're usually pretty bad because they're very low budget.

[on Wes Craven and The People Under the Stairs (1991)] I went to see the film and I was just riveted by this thing. I thought "My God, this guy is brilliant. I'd love to work with him.".

[on playing the character Alex DeLarge in Cỗ Máy Tội Phạm (1971)] I don't think I have ever had that much fun doing the work. He was a wicked son-of-a-bitch.

[on Rob Zombie] He's got a definite point of view. He has just done horror films because that's all they want him to make. For him to get out of that, which he will, is going to be tough. He is a far better director than a horror movie director. The way he looks at the material and the way he gives you rein but also gives you boundaries.

[on Lindsay Anderson] I loved him, more than any other man, ever. More than my father I think. I loved him.

[At ZomBcon] It is true I'd rather get a hole in one than win an Academy Award.

[on Stanley Kubrick and Cỗ Máy Tội Phạm (1971)] I was fortunate enough to work with Stanley before his infamous paranoia set in (referring to Kubrick's obsession over every possible variation on a scene, and over everything that might - or at least could - go wrong while filming). One complex technical shot, on the waterfront, gave us so much trouble that 50 takes were required... so Stanley did have an excuse. Nonetheless, after Take 49, I asked him if we couldn't call this Take 1-A. "If I have to hear 'Take 50,'" I complained "I feel I'm going to crack." But Stanley looked me in the face and said, very flatly, 'no'. So 'Take 50' it was. Well, I *tried* to reason with him, anyway.

[2012, on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame] For a lad that grew up in Liverpool, Hollywood was this notion of everything that was incredible in the movies, and Hollywood has meant so much for the rest of the world - we take it, because we live in L.A., sort of for granted. My father ran a pub in Burscough in Lancashire, just outside Liverpool, so I feel that from the Bull and Dog to the Pig and Whistle, it's not that far.

I'm proud of the work I did in Bạo Chúa Caligula (1979). There's no question about that. But there's all the raunchy stuff - the blatant, modern-day porn that Bob introduced into the film after we would finished shooting. That to me was an absolutely outrageous betrayal and quite unprecedented. Frankly, it showed that Bob had no class whatsoever. When Gore told me it was Bob Guccione, I asked "Isn't he a pornographer?" Gore said "Malcolm, just think of him as one of the Warner Brothers. He just signs the checks!" Well, of course that wasn't true...

You can't hold back. You can't think of the subtleties of playing. You just have to get out and really bare it all, and hopefully you don't fall off the plank. And if you do, hey, pick yourself up, dust yourself down, and start all over again.

I'm not quite as buoyant as I was in my youth.

The villains that I play, I always think that they are grounded, wonderful people with enormous intellects who are very exciting to spend an evening with. I never see them as bad people.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

You've always got to work with the best if you can, and of course, the best are the best because they're different. They expect certain standards, and they're usually very difficult people to work with.

My favorite actor who played villains - who could play anything, really - was Jimmy Cagney.

If you look a little punkish, then they're going to give you the parts. And if you play an iconic villain early on in your career, you tend to get asked to play one over and over and over again.

I think we're all a little afraid of the dark. If you lived in the country, as I did, there's nothing quite like country dark, which was really black. And as a child, your imagination runs wild.

Let's not get too precious about it: actors are not heart surgeons or brain surgeons. We are just entertaining people. Once you commit to something, you've got to commit the whole way. Try and make the best of it.

The most nurturing of directors can make you feel too comfortable, and you don't really push for that extra whatever. Different directors offer you different things, and it's not necessarily the most obvious things.

An actor cannot be a censor. I'm there to interpret. I'd love to do radio plays. I think that one should be open to everything and shouldn't limit oneself.

You know, I've had an incredible career and I'm blessed. I love doing every role I do!

The thing is, I've never been a handsome leading-man type, so let's not kid ourselves.

I just love a challenge, and always have, and will do anything to make it interesting. I'll try anything, really, as long as it's a challenge and you can have some fun doing it.

I'm from a country where acting is taken very seriously; it's a very serious profession.

If you dunk your head in cold water, you can't stay under for more than five seconds. I mean, that's it.

Every university in America teaches Cỗ Máy Tội Phạm (1971). I get fed up with it.

I don't worry about whether I'm making a masterpiece, because I know that if you get just one of those in a lifetime, you should get down on your knees and say 'Thank you!'

I like to razz the Trekkies a little bit. Who doesn't? It's trainspotting, isn't it? But they are very well-meaning, actually. I've done a couple of Star Trek conventions, and they've only been really welcoming.

I've always been one to do the work and just hone my craft. There are no great scripts - just great films.

I love Robert Altman. I always admired him so much because I always thought he was a genuine voice.

Richard Lester is a wonderful director, a great comedy director, of course.

[on Clockwork Orange] For the first 10 years after I made it I resented it, I was sick of it. I didn't want to talk about the f*cking thing, I was over it. I said: 'Look, I'm an actor, I got to play a great part, I'm moving on.' Then I came to the realization that it was a masterwork, and I was very, very much part of it. You may as well just accept it and enjoy it.