The subconscious mind takes your fears as a request, proceeds to manifest them, and brings them into your experience. - Joseph Murphy
People who are truly horrible are often the most interesting people in the room. You look at them and just say, 'Why?' - Ian McKellen
Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying. - Ian McKellen
So it's joyful to me, in my 71st year, to be able to be in a play that is absolutely right for my age and my experience, and that is a popular success. What more could you ask as an actor? - Ian McKellen
Splendid architecture, the love of your life, an old friend... they can all go drifting by unseen if you're not careful. - Ian McKellen
That was the big effect Lord of the Rings had on me. It was discovering New Zealand. And even more precious were the people- not at all like the Australians. - Ian McKellen
The battle going on over gay marriage in America reveals an awful lot. The Bible belt - people hate gay people. Because the Bible tells them? No, the Bible tells them an awful lot of things that they ignore. - Ian McKellen
The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie. - Ian McKellen
The first film role I deliberately chose to play after I came out was a raging heterosexual, John Profumo. - Ian McKellen
The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldn't do that in the 1950s if you were gay. There were secret handshakes, a secret language. There was nowhere you could go to be romantic outside of people's houses. - Ian McKellen
The most likely explanation is the most practical. 'Macbeth' is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of 'Macbeth'. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting. - Ian McKellen
The one thing you can ask, I think, is that actors get paid a living wage. I would like it if all the repertory theatres that currently exist could do that. It would make a huge difference. - Ian McKellen
The press like to talk to actors. They mustn't be surprised when actors talk back to them. - Ian McKellen
The strength of British theatre should be that these actors in their middle years know what they're doing and are good at it. Not rich, not famous, but making a living. - Ian McKellen
The thing you notice here after America is how refreshingly ordinary people look because they haven't had their chin wrapped around the back of their ears. - Ian McKellen
The wonderful thing about modern medicine is that so many of these complaints that used to signify old age and decline can be coped with. - Ian McKellen
Theatre is relatively easy if you're British - you're living in the theatre capital of the world, London - there are so many places you can work, still. If I had begun to think of myself as a film actor, I think I would have got distracted. - Ian McKellen
There are a lot of actors - I'm probably one - who are most at home when they're on stage. - Ian McKellen
There are not many things in my life I can be absolutely proud of or certain I got right, but one of them is that I've got better as an actor. I've learnt how to do it. And I still have enough energy to do it. - Ian McKellen
There are people who've enjoyed my work in the theater, and they let me know that it was special for them. I'm not going to say, 'Well, you should have seen me as Gandalf!' - Ian McKellen
There are some tremendous actors in the U.K. who have been knighted, and I've spent much of my life admiring many of them, like Laurence Olivier. So it's very flattering to be in their company. But you also end up in the company of people you don't admire, including some rather dodgy politicians. - Ian McKellen
There are still times in my life where I pull back from being totally honest, and I can't imagine a single straight person who would understand that. - Ian McKellen
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