David Suchet Quotes

I’m 64 years old, and I’ve been acting now for 42 years. Only recently have I thought to myself, ‘Hmmm, it may be interesting to start directing.’

I think it’s very dangerous, the idea of celebrity – you have to be constantly controversial to maintain the status of celebrity. Reality TV is the death of entertainment – it’s just mindless TV but popular because of its voyeuristic nature, and people are very voyeuristic.

I was a typical teen growing up in the 1960s, when everybody was into gurus and meditation.

I’m never bored, never ever bored. If I’ve got a day off I’ll sit in a cafe and watch and observe. I’m a great observer.

I would have liked to do more big movies. And the reason I say that is not because I want to be a star, but what I would have liked to have done is reached a different audience with my work.

I’m really into my photography and am trying to catch up with digital generation – I was used to the old 35mm cameras.

The joy of my career is I’ve been very blessed to be able to be an actor in major films, television, theater, and also British radio. In fact, my dream as an actor when I started out was to be able to work in all the media. Thankfully, that’s what I’m being given to do.

A successful swindler has to be a great salesman even more than a great actor.

I’d love to be remembered as a character actor who brought illumination to roles in wonderful plays and who delivered performances that made people think and rethink those roles.

I’m three-quarters Russian, so I’ve always felt an outsider. But I don’t think you can be in a play with John Of Gaunt’s ‘This sceptred isle’ speech and not feel proud to be British.

When you’re doing characters from famous novels, you have a responsibility as an actor to make it what the writer intended. And then you add and expand from there to create a three-dimensional performance.

I don’t really want people to see me. I’m not into stardom.

That’s the thing about film acting and television acting. You just release yourself and do what is true for the moment, and ignore everybody and everything and all the technical razzmatazz that goes on.

I became fascinated by the fact that people write to give away rather than write to be read. It’s the difference between playwrights and novelists.

Inevitably, every part an actor plays contains some of himself.

When I was 16, I made some little 35mm documentaries about the poor in London. I went round Notting Hill, which was a real slum in the 1950s, shooting film.

I love music, especially classical like Verdi; it’s a great way to relax.

I’ve always been short and stocky. So when I got into repertory theatre after graduation, I found myself doing character roles: because of my deep voice, shape and height, I was playing 40-year-old, 50-year-old roles at the age of 23.