'Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.
— Theodore Bikel
There is no role I cannot play except a midget.
It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
I glory in the fact that a human being has multiple talents and exercises them all with a degree of integrity and artistic proficiency. That's what I do.
In my mind the city of Ariel is a thorn in Israel's side and a serious obstacle to peace.
While we all could agree that the Zionist ideal is alive and well, there is serious doubt whether the Zionist movement can be said to be an ongoing proposition, fragmented as its components are in ideology and in practice.
No movement can afford to be caught in a time warp and exist in a state of suspended animation.
I remain convinced that I can be a true universalist only when I am a better Jew.
For I firmly believe that Jewish life, indeed any communal life, can only be organized according to democratic principles.
As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
Every actor wants to direct.
When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.
I tried for a while to be an agricultural worker and was hopelessly bored. I would stand around in heaps of manure and sing about the beauty of the work I wasn't doing.
You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.
I'm exceedingly proud of being an actor, but I never recommend it to anyone.
I am not a specialist but a general practitioner in the world of the arts.
I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?
I am first, and foremost, an actor. That's what I am. To me, a song is a mini-drama. My musical ability informs the actor as well because it gives me a sense of timing that non-musicians don't have. So, one hand washes the other.
I refuse to do shows that are narrowly constructed, that appeal to only one sentiment. I do a lot of Jewish material in front of non-Jews and a lot of non-Jewish material in front of Jews on the simple theory that the non-Jews are entitled to a glimpse of a Jewish world and the Jews are entitled to a glimpse of the world.
I am a Zionist, an ardent supporter of Israel, its defender when I deem Israel to be right and its critic when I deem it to be wrong.
Right up to the middle of this century all perceptions of the world around us were delivered via the bookshelf or the paper route.
No doubt unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed into being by mere declarations.
I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures or that the Jewish song is better than the song of my neighbor.
But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.
The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.
I always sang, I always acted, I always played.
I created the role of Captain Von Trapp.
You learn more from the flops than from the hits.
I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.
I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.
Accents. I'm very good with accents. I'm exceedingly good.
I don't speak out because I am an actor nor will I keep silent because I am an actor. I respect my profession, but it endows me with no special privileges; but it also does not limit me or muzzle me. I am a person and a citizen with the attendant responsibilities of voice and vote.
You cannot please all of the people all of the time, and that is truer in the arts than anywhere else.
I am not, and have never been, in favor of boycotting Israel.
No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.
One might have thought the world would stop ascribing moral equivalence between acts of terrorism and acts of punishing terrorism. It has not happened that way.
Must we be put to shame by much smaller and poorer countries, by Ireland, France, Austria or Sweden, who have understood that a nation's support of its arts is a matter of both national pride and cultural survival?
I am filled with awe that filmmakers have the capacity to stir us and give us back a sense of wonder.
But there is a difference here: When Jewish children are murdered, Arabs celebrate the deed. The death of an Arab child is no cause for celebration in Israel.
You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.
You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.
I do prefer the stage. It's really the granddaddy of them all.
Audiences are audiences.
If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.
I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.
I do not know who there is among us that can claim to know God's purpose and God's intent.
