Laurence Olivier movie quotes

“Make up your mind dearheart. Do you want to be a great actor or a household word?”

Laurence Olivier On Richard Burton

“Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is... It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing you best.”
Laurence Olivier

“One of the disadvantages of being a Patrician is that occasionally you are obliged to act like one.”
Laurence Olivier - Crassus

“Doctor Watson, Mr. Holmes is convinced that I am some sort of criminal mastermind of the most depraved order. I know he is a great and good man. All England resounds with his praise. But in my case he fosters a ghastly illusion and I come to you as his friend rather than turning the matter over to my solicitor.”
Laurence Olivier - Professor James Moriarty

“I was carried away by her, enchanted by her, as everyone was. And when I was married, I was told that I was the luckiest man in the world. She was so lovely, so accomplished, so amusing.”

Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

“I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul.”

Laurence Olivier - Heathcliff

“Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.”
Laurence Olivier

“Marilyn Monroe was a professional amateur.”
Laurence Olivier On Marilyn Monroe

“Are any of us so blameless?”
Laurence Olivier - Julius

“Cathy, I never broke your heart. You broke it! Cathy! You loved me! What right to throw love away for the poor fancy thing you felt for him, for a handful of worthiness.”

Laurence Olivier - Heathcliff

“A whole new car from bottom up and bumper to bumper! A-ha! Wheeee! Damn, it's gonna be like the old days again!”
Laurence Olivier - Number One

“- David Bennett: We have the right and we have the duty.
- Ezra Lieberman: To do what? To kill children.”
John Rubinstein - David Bennett
Laurence Olivier - Ezra Lieberman

You know, there was a nurse here, an angel of mercy called Miss Hannah, who actually gives me cigarettes. You know what she said to me the other day? She said, "Mr. Lieberman, if you can escape Buchenwald, and you can escape those bullets, then a few cigarettes will not hurt you".
Laurence Olivier - Ezra Lieberman

“What are legends anyway but stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things? Of course, it takes courage and imagination... not everybody has that.”
Laurence Olivier - Julius

“Not Mozart. Not Picasso. Not a genius who will enrich the world. But a lonely little boy with a domineering father, a customs officer who was 52 when he was born. And an affectionate doting mother who was 29. The father died when he was 65 when the boy was nearly 14... Adolf Hitler.”
Laurence Olivier - Ezra Lieberman

“Son, I hate to say this, but in your heart you know it anyway. You're not within twenty years of running a company bigger than a bicycle shop, let alone a great company like mine.”
Laurence Olivier - Number One

“Those little bottles contain demons that have a way of popping out at you just as you're trying most desperately to forget.”

Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

“- Professor Bruckner: He was nothing but a sadist, really.
- Ezra Lieberman: A sadist with an M.D. and a Ph.D.
- Professor Bruckner: Well, some people would say the perfect definition of a scientist.”

Bruno Ganz - Professor Bruckner
Laurence Olivier - Ezra Lieberman

“- Heathcliff: My tears don't love you, Cathy. They blight and curse and damn you!
- Cathy: Heathcliff, don't break my heart.
- Heathcliff: Oh Cathy, I never broke your heart. You broke it!”
Laurence Olivier - Heathcliff
Merle Oberon - Cathy

“- Julius: There was no Emilia. She was a fantasy.
- Daniel: She was a lie!
- Julius: She was an attempt to bring - a little romance - into my life.
- Daniel: That's pretty sad!
- Julius: Any sadder than sitting in a darkened theater, pretending you are Robert Redford, performing heroic deeds?”
Laurence Olivier - Julius
Thelonious Bernard - Daniel

“- Count Dracula: You are a wise man, Professor, for someone who has not lived even a single lifetime.
- Prof. Abraham Van Helsing: You flatter me, Count.”
Frank Langella - Dracula
Laurence Olivier - Abraham Van Helsing

“- Admiral Hood: It takes more than an infatuated youth to make a mutiny. It takes a discontented crew.
- Lieutenant William Bligh: The crew were anything but discontent, sir. Fletcher Christian corrupted them.
- Captain Greetham: Yes, but what made them so easy to corrupt?
- Lieutenant William Bligh: I don't know.”
Laurence Olivier - Admiral Hood
Philip Anthony Hopkins - Lieutenant William Bligh
Edward Fox - Captain Greetham

“- Cathy: Looking at you tonight I could not help but remember how things used to be.
- Heathcliff: They used to be better.”
Merle Oberon - Cathy
Laurence Olivier - Heathcliff

“You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!”

Laurence Olivier - "Maxim" de Winter

“- Sidney Beynon: Have you any idea how many men in their mid-60s die every day?
- Ezra Lieberman: I try not to think about it.”
Denholm Elliott - Sidney Beynon
Laurence Olivier - Ezra Lieberman