Quotes by Ian Mckellen

I have little routines in the theater. Once Ive established something, like the order of putting on makeup and a costume, I have to invariably do it in the same order every time, even if I only did it by chance the first time round.

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character youre playing through your own experience - so were all different.

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.

Its only fair that stable gay relationships of long standing should have the same rights and responsibilities as married couples. I know the image of gay marriage is to some people horrific and ludicrous.

What I particularly like about Broadway is the camaraderie and the friendship of other people in other shows. Everybody knows youre opening and cares about you. Theres a real village atmosphere.

The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.

Im not someone who wears shades all the time and ducks into a darkened car in case Im recognized - that would be absolute misery.

Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal youre gay.

The huge difference in my lifetime is that you can just go up to somebody and make a pass. You couldnt 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 peoples houses.