Jim Dale Quotations

Whether I want to or not, I think I will be remembered for 'Harry Potter,' but why not? How lovely to be remembered as the voice of Harry Potter.

I was the first person in America to have the script and I think only the third person to know what the story was,

But it was a fascinating journey, because there I was creating voices and speaking words and I didn't know where the story was going.

My wife knew, but don't mention that because they'll probably put a spell on me and I'll disappear in a cloud of smoke. But you can't keep it from her -- I'm at home yelling out these voices. My wife must be an idiot if she didn't recognize this is book four. But she didn't read it.

I was the only one in America with the book (in manuscript form). Released into the wrong hands, it could have ended up on the Internet and losing a lot of people a lot of money.

You know the only way a show can get around before people have seen it is when the cast starts talking to each other in Joe Allen's. 'How's it going? Oh not too good.' 'Oh how's it going? Fantastic.' So that's how rumors start.

What we are saying and implying here is that the education you get here is effective. It's not simply for its own sake.

And to be perfectly honest, when you listen to the tapes, when you get to Harry, it's just a younger-sounding voice that you're hearing. I haven't tried to make him different from the voice I have. So it's nice to think my younger voice of myself is the voice that kids are hearing as Harry Potter.

Every actor who comes along must be made to feel he can contribute something different, otherwise no-one would accept any historical role.

I visualized the reactions of children listening. Stunned silence here! So hold the pause for two, three, four. This line is a laugh, more than a giggle, so pause, two, three or their chuckles will drown the next line. I'm lucky to have forty years experience of stage comedy to back me up.

Sometimes, you're able to create a very distinct voice ... from just the pace of their speech. Did you know. That Michael Caine. Can only speak. In three words. At one time.

They're seriously thinking of getting in touch of the Guinness Book of Records to recommend an entry in it under 'most voices recorded from one person for an audio book,'

Dance training gave me the confidence to walk and move on stage. It gave me the gestures. It made me feel at ease.

They came over to us and said, 'Are you . . . are you HIM?'

They were nearly beaten up every day by friends wanting to know the story of book four, ... On bended knees, fielding off all the blows, they had to say, 'Granddad won't tell us! He won't tell us! He won't breathe a word of it!'

A period of severe wintry weather with blizzards, bitter winds and hard frosts is set to strike. The Arctic-like weather will be felt in the east and north of the country at first, spreading to all other parts during the course of the week.

I love living in London, although this will be the first time I have spent Christmas in England since 1973. I'm a theatre-based actor and this city is great for having a theatre community around you.

It helps if you have an ear for voices and accents,

I assured them that I was HIM and proceeded to order a hamburger as Professor Dumbledore: 'I think I'd rather like a cheeseburger -- well done, with onions on the side,' ... The girls were amazed.

I was always the clown in school. I had a personal put down sense of humor. I wasn't vindictive. I didn't make fun of people.

You cannot learn anything from success, you only learn from failure.

I only travel to good material, a good director and a good company. I won't work in another country for a year any longer, because I have a lovely wife and I adore her and I can't bear to be away from her.

I'm still a kid inside, and adventure is adventure wherever you find it.

Good acting is consistency of performance.

When I was nine, we'd take a bus to the seaside. Coming back, we'd take turns entertaining, singing songs and the like. I tried some stand-up comedy. I had a captive audience in that bus. Then I realized I wanted to do more than that.

I'd get more applause than some because I was just seventeen. If they didn't clap at the end of my act I would limp off stage and boy would they feel guilty. They would all burst into tremendous applause as they saw this poor cripple kid walking off.

You've got to love the villain if you have to play him. You've got to find something that you can live with in yourself if you're going to play the villain in a play on stage.

The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don't have a director telling you how to do it.

I remember certain people in the audience laughing and I wanted to ask: 'What are you laughing at? This isn't funny.' Now I realize that laughter can come from insecurity. They don't know how they should be feeling.

We talk about theatre museums filled with old costumes and things. What we also need is a theatre museum of the old routines on videotape. We are only the custodians of those techniques, and they should be preserved.

It's a little like casting out hundreds of fishing lines into the audience. You start getting little bites, then more, then you hook a few, then more. Then you can start reeling them in and that's a loveliest feeling - the whole audience laughing with you.

A career in the theatre demands so much commitment.

I feel if some kid has sat down and felt I'm important enough to write two pages of words to and take up a lot of his valuable time, then he deserves a few words back, or even a phone call as I have done on a few occasions.

There is no spray can called 'Instant Stardom,' only talent can keep you at the top.

I'd rather get a good clean laugh with good material, than an easy laugh by swearing or shocking. That's not clever or comedic, anybody can get a laugh that way, it's too easy.