Alec Guinness Quotations

Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage, and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.

That's no moon. It's a space station

Much of the day I have busied myself making notes on the small parts in Shakespeare, often nameless, which are rewarding to the actor if only he'll not dismiss them as beneath his dignity. If I can work it up into a talk I might call it, 'Only a cough and a spit ' -the phrase so often used by actors to explain away a lack of opportunity.

A superb tenor voice, like a silver trumpet muffled in silk.

An Actor is an interpreter of other men's words, often a soul which wishes to reveal itself to the world but dare not, a craftsman, a bag of tricks, a vanity bag, a cool observer of mankind, a child and at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents...

Best performance of the year: Aston Villa v. Milan, September 1994

Styling is designing for obsolescence.

My contribution to film has always been negligible.

I shrivel up every time someone mentions Star Wars to me.

Essentially, I'm a small-part actor who's been lucky enough to play leading roles for most of his life.