117 Inspiring Anthony Hopkins Quotes from the Iconic Actor

Born in 1937, Welsh stage and film actor Anthony Hopkins is famed for his intense performances, often embodying complex, misfit characters.

Beginning his acting journey at 18, Hopkins honed his craft at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

He made his professional debut in 1960 and joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre company in 1965, quickly gaining critical acclaim.

Despite early struggles with alcoholism and a rebellious attitude, Hopkins managed to reform and achieve significant momentum in his career.

Related: Michael Imperioli Quotes from the American Actor and Sam Elliott Quotes from the American Actor

I have made a list of the best quotes by Anthony Hopkins.

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Best Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Guilt is the thief of life. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

The reward is in the doing of it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I have dual citizenship, it just so happens I live in America. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m always cast in these strange men, that’s not me, really. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If you don’t follow through on your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

The art of acting is not to act. Once you show them more, what you show them in fact, is bad acting. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m the slowest driver in the world. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

And I love a scary movie. It makes your toes curl and it’s not you going through it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

At my age, any day above ground and vertical is a good day. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

How do you play Hannibal Lector? Well just don’t move. Scare people by being still. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I found a way into the acting business because I thought, well, it beats working for a living, and so that’s what I do. But I still feel like a bit of a stranger in it all. I’ve never really belonged anywhere. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

In the theatre, people talk. Talk, talk until the cows come home about journeys of discovery and about what Hazlitt thought of a line of Shakespeare. I can’t stand it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Top Anthony Hopkins Quotes

I have no illusions about my position in this world as an actor or anything like that. I’m very realistic. Reality is a very liberating thing. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If you’re an alcoholic or a drug addict or something, we flirt with death. We pull ourselves to the brink of destruction and if we’re lucky we pull ourselves back. We all have that in us. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t like mushiness. I’m a very emotional person but I hate sentimentality. I don’t like great demonstrations of emotion. But as I’m getting older, I’m getting much more open about all that. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If I spent all my time criticizing myself, I wouldn’t be able to function. There are actors who theorize till the cows come home. I haven’t the patience for them. It’s maybe shallow, but that’s why I’ll never be part of the acting set. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’ve been very lucky. I’ve had my problems in the past, I’ve had my troubles, but you move on. I had a great life and I am really thankful for it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m most suspicious of scripts that have a lot of stage direction at the top of the page. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

There’s many a good tune played by an old banjo. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

There is nothing to be scared of in movies. It’s a bit scarier going on stage. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one’s nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

There’s no truth in acting, it’s all a trick because you go on stage in front of sets, you’re on film – it’s all a trick. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t believe in nepotism. I don’t much like the idea of parents who interfere. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Oh yes. I’m an actor, so I just learn my lines, and show up and do it. I gave it a little bit of thought. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Inspirational Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I still don’t know what the film was about because all I remember is a whole lot of technical dialogue about a body in a suitcase. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Acting is just a process of relaxation, actually. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m fascinated by the fact that we can’t grasp anything about time. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I like to work. I don’t like to disrupt my equilibrium. I don’t like to change my head. I’d rather be a third-rate actor. It’s a job, and I’m dedicated in my way. I enjoy it. I’m serious about it. But if it doesn’t come off, I’m not going to die. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m not a health freak. I just work out every day. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

No expectations. Ask nothing, expect nothing and accept everything, and life is very well. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

You have to be pretty tough to be an actor, and you have to be pretty certain what you want. You can’t waffle through this business. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I love the hour in makeup. It gives you time to think and have a cup of coffee. It’s my favorite part of the day. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Motivational Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Acting is about listening and reacting. John Wayne was right: Acting is just reacting. You don’t have to do much – as long as you stay out of the way of others. That’s why it works. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Let go of people who aren’t ready to love you yet! Stop giving your love to them. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That’s the way I always work. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

It’s such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you’re going to do a day’s work and at the end of it, it’s going to be good. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

We are fascinated by the darkness in ourselves, we are fascinated by the shadow, we are fascinated by the boogeyman. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’ve always liked to be a meat and potatoes kind of actor who doesn’t believe in any of the highfalutin stuff about acting, so I tend to be a little bit more cynical. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Famous Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I’d follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I’ve been very lucky. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Jonathan Demme is a very sharp editor of his movies. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

You still wake up sometimes. You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If you do things, whether its acting or music or painting do it without fear. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

When you’re younger you have so many ideas about yourself; everything is important. It’s not when you look back, nothing is that important. It’s only life. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart – they were wonderful actors. They didn’t act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I enjoy painting. I don’t know if I’m good at it, but I paint. I paint very quickly. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Our existence is beyond our explanation, whether we believe in God or we have religion or we’re atheist. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

People don’t always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don’t advance in life. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I worked at the Steel Company Of Wales when I was 17. My job was to supply tools to the guys working the blast furnaces. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Inspiring Anthony Hopkins Quotes

Actors I admire? Ed Harris, or course, I think he’s terrific; because I know he always had to fight being what he looked like a lot, but I think he’s a terrific actor. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

We have a Boesendorfer piano that I play every day. It keeps my brain and my fingers active. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’ve got a great sense of humor. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

My life has been a kind of mystery to me. By all my logical, linear thinking I started out in school as a little boy, I didn’t have a clue about anything. What they were talking about in school, couldn’t play sports, couldn’t learn, and I was bottom of the class. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

We’re all caught up in circumstances, and we’re all good and evil. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Once you accept the fact that there’s nothing to fear, you drill into the primal oil well. I believe when we do things without fear, we can do anything. As long as you don’t worry about the consequences… ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Getting old ain’t for the faint of heart. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t like freeloaders; I don’t like people who are negative. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t waste time being soft. I’m not cold, but I don’t like being, wasting my time with-life’s too short. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Living with reality is a very good trick. It gives you tremendous freedom and it changes the structure of molecules of your soul by living through reality because you don’t expect anything anymore, which is a weird paradox. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I have no education, I have no academic background in painting or in music, but I write music and I compose music and I write and I sell paintings, and my rule is, well, they can’t arrest me. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

It will be the kiss by which all others in your life will be judged… and found wanting. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

We all dream. We dream vividly, depending on our nature. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever, and you will still have barely a glimpse of what I’m talking about. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I love to have a laugh. I like to tease people. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m a pretty tough guy, you know. I’ve got a lot of compassion, but I don’t waste time with people. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Popular Anthony Hopkins Quotes

It’s very difficult to liberate yourself from what you’ve learned. You know it’s almost impossible because you learn in order to survive. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

When you’re young, you’re very insecure. And if I could learn, if I could revisit my own past I could say to myself, don’t think too much, just get on and do it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If you do things, whether it’s acting or music or painting, do it without fear – that’s my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there’s nothing to lose. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

If you don’t go when you want to go, when you do go, you’ll find you’ve gone. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I have a punishing workout regimen. Every day I do 3 minutes on a treadmill, then I lie down. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I love roller coasters. I don’t get a chance often, but I’ve gone to Magic Mountain and gone on the rides. I love roller coasters. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Women never really care to face the truth when their hearts are involved. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I love life because what more is there? ~ Anthony Hopkins.

There’s a thing that if you – somebody in faith is always troubled by doubt, and somebody by doubt is always wanted by faith. So it’s a kind of paradox. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t know what acting is, but I enjoy it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Non-expectation, non-acceptance because the expectation leads to resentment and depression, so I have no expectations. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Life is tough, but you just have to just get out of bed, get out and do it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I would like to go back to Wales. I’m obsessed with my childhood and at least three times a week dream I am back there. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Today is the tomorrow I was worried about yesterday. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’d like to wake up and look like Brad Pitt in the morning, but I don’t. I look in the mirror, and I see me. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Thoughtful Anthony Hopkins Quotes

I play piano and that’s my love. I read and I paint and I compose music, so I’ve got a pretty full creative life. And it’s not because I’m obsessively creative. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Today is the tomorrow I was worried about yesterday. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

When I was a young guy, I knew everything. Now I know very little. I know less and less as the time goes on. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’ve reached a happy stage in my life – you can call it happy ~ Anthony Hopkins. – but I have no expectations anymore. I’m glad I’m not young anymore. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

You reach a point in life where you just think, ‘Show up, do your job, make sure the cheque’s on the way,’ and that’s it. I’m not hungry to do anything more, really. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Acting’s entertainment. It’s not brain surgery. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Things have changed so much now. Everything is downloaded onto computers. I’m not a computer-savvy guy, but with downloading the movie industry has changed. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m very much a loner. I don’t like long relationships with people and I always keep people at a distance. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I always distrust the art when it is applied to acting. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

There is no shortcut to happiness, you have to live your life. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Life is tough, but you just have to just get out of bed, get out and do it. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I know how to be strong. I know how to be ruthless. It’s part of my nature. I wouldn’t be an actor if I wasn’t. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I could stay making nice safe BBC movies for the rest of my life, so I decided to risk it. It was a challenge, to work with Oliver Stone. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I visualized a lot of things happening to me, because I was a lonely kid because I didn’t understand anything about school. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Legendary Anthony Hopkins Quotes

You look closely enough, you’ll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t want to be anything else other than what I am. I can say that with passion. No regrets… ~ Anthony Hopkins.

For me, time is the greatest mystery of all. The fact is that we’re dreaming all the time. That’s what really gets me. We have a fathomless lake of unconsciousness just beneath our skulls. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Shakespeare’s so bloody difficult, and I don’t like failure. You can fail on film, but there’s nobody actually there in the flesh to watch you failing. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I don’t have many friends; I’m very much a loner. As a child I was very isolated, and I’ve never been really close to anyone. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I read a lot, that’s my main hobby. I’ve got an iPad which I store books on and I read voraciously. I’m a slow reader but I’m obsessive. I make references, underline things, cross-reference. I’m an autodidact. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

You’re not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling? ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I am a bit of a solitude person – a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don’t have any major friendships or relationships with people. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

The whole point of courage, to overcome your fear. That’s the interesting thing, when courage bleeds through the fear. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

Keep low expectations and life gets pretty good. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m interested in the dream and subconscious mind, the peculiar dream-like quality of our lives, sometimes nightmare quality of our lives. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

I’m devious, cruel, cunning and addictive. ~ Anthony Hopkins.

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So these were the 117 top Sir Anthony Hopkins quotes on life, success and acting.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Jordan Belfort quotes and Shirley Chisholm quotes.

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Short Biography of Anthony Hopkins

Anthony Hopkins, born in Wales in 1937, is a highly acclaimed actor with two Oscars, four BAFTAs, two Emmys, and a Laurence Olivier Award.

Knighted in 1993, he started his acting journey at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, moving on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Hopkins gained fame on stage and screen, with notable roles in “The Silence of the Lambs” and “The Father.”

His early life in Port Talbot was marked by a love for art over academics, inspired by Richard Burton.

Full Name	Philip Anthony Hopkins
Born	31 December 1937 (age 86 years), Port Talbot, Glamorgan, Wales
Spouse	Stella Arroyave (m. 2003), Jennifer Lynton (m. 1973–2002), Petronella Barker (m. 1966–1972)
Children	Abigail Hopkins
Parents	Richard Arthur Hopkins, Muriel Anne Hopkins
Alma Mater	Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama; Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Citizenship	United Kingdom, United States
Occupations	Actor, director, producer

His career took off after being spotted by Laurence Olivier, leading to significant roles in film and television, including “The Lion in Winter” and “War and Peace.”

Hopkins’s contributions to acting have been recognized with numerous awards and a reputation for exceptional talent.

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Quick Facts about Anthony Hopkins

• Anthony Hopkins was born on December 31, 1937, in Margam, Wales.
• He trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.
• Hopkins began his acting career on stage, including performances at the National Theatre in London.
• His early breakthrough role was in “The Elephant Man” in 1980.
• He famously played Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1991.
• For “The Silence of the Lambs,” Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Actor.
• To prepare for Hannibal Lecter, he studied real-life serial killers and visited prisons.
• Hopkins is known for his versatility, playing a wide range of roles from historical figures to supernatural beings.
• Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1993.
• He’s an acclaimed Shakespearean actor, known for roles in Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.
• Hopkins worked with Steven Spielberg on “Amistad” in 1997.
• He’s a gifted pianist and has composed music for films.
• Hopkins has been successful on TV, notably in “Westworld.”
• He’s served as a mentor to many aspiring actors.
• Hopkins is active in charity work, including for the British Heart Foundation.
• He received the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award in 2000.
• Hopkins has received multiple Academy Award nominations.
• He enjoys painting and has exhibited his artwork.
• He’s an avid reader and has narrated audiobooks.
• Hopkins played Alfred Hitchcock in the film “Hitchcock” in 2012.
• The BAFTA Fellow Award was given to him in 2008.
• He’s worked with Emma Thompson in films like “Howards End.”
• Hopkins and Ridley Scott teamed up for “Hannibal” in 2001.
• He loves cars and owns a collection including a vintage Jaguar.
• Hopkins earned awards for his stage performances before his film career.
• He’s known for his deep, commanding voice.
• He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003.
• Hopkins supports wildlife conservation efforts.
• He and Jodie Foster were memorable in “The Silence of the Lambs.”
• Hopkins is celebrated for his powerful acting and ability to bring complex characters to life.

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Top Questions about Anthony Hopkins