Richard Attenborough

“At my age the only problem is with remembering names. When I call everyone darling, it has damn all to do with passionately adoring them, but I know I'm safe calling them that. Although, of...”

“If someone does something in an entertainment/pop ambience, that person becomes someone who has an impact on the conduct and attitude of a huge number of people who peripherally come in cont...”

“I do not have a brain that I long for in dealing with matters of which I am ignorant - that don't come within my ken and a rationale, a reason, an argument and so on - and I can't do that, a...”

“What actually happened with 'Miracle' was that someone saw me in 'Jurassic Park' and said, 'We want someone with a white beard - how about him?' I've got a round face, white hair, a white be...”

“I am passionately opposed to capital punishment, and I have been all my life.”

“If you are playing in 'Charley's Aunt,' and your favourite aunt died that lunchtime, you'll still have to go on the stage and play 'Charley's Aunt.'”

“I know I'm regarded as an establishment figure, but I was crucified by the establishment for 'Oh! What a Lovely War', 'Gandhi' and 'Cry Freedom.'”

“If you've ever seen the film In Which We Serve, but it was about a destroyer in the Mediterranean.”

“My family were liberal with a small 'l' but passionately doers. I wanted to be a doer.”

“I'm not an intellectual in any sense, I have constraints of erudition. I'm not able to deal with things outside my ken, and that makes me irritable. I'm irritable about the fact that I never...”

“The family is the focal point of our existence. And up until Jane and Lucy's death, there were always 16 of us together for Christmas.”

“I'm not a great director or an auteur; I'm an ensemble director. I do think I can get wonderful performances out of actors.”

“My main aim in 'Gandhi' was to project him as the vanguard of non-violence. Nowhere in the world has a movement of non-cooperation sans violence received so much support from masses as Gandh...”

“If I were able to write, I probably would. But movies have given me a part of my life where I can express feelings and bring convictions to an audience as if I could write. So I made 'Gandhi...”

“Irreverence is an essential part of our culture.”

“The old adage about acting - that it's 98% energy and 2% talent - is true, you know.”

“I think Tom Paine is one of the greatest men that's ever lived.”

“I think Tom Paine is one of the greatest men that's ever lived. He lived in the 18th century; as you all know, he was an Englishman who was involved in the writing of American Declaration of...”

“I don't use film in the way that the great auteurs do. I use film, the camera, to record as effectively and as perceptive as I am able what I want to say through the actors.”

“I know Pandit Ravi Shankar was very upset with me, as I did not use his compositions in 'Gandhi.' I thought that the London Philharmonic Orchestra would prove more effective than his music....”