Pleasence Quotes & Sayings

I do not use any set methods, not even The Method. The character after all is in the lines. — Donald Pleasence

All the real work is done in the rehearsal period. — Donald Pleasence

John and I had a few meetings about what direction the sequel should take. I made some real insane suggestions. True to what you'd expect, he ignored them all and just picked up Halloween II where the original left off. — Donald Pleasence

Because of Jesus' supposed predestination, God would have had to choose the people who would kill and betray his son, choose the method by which he would be killed (crucifixion), and the time at which the event would occur. Those guilty of killing Jesus would therefore be simply carrying out God's wishes without the free will to have chosen a path for themselves. — David G. McAfee

I do think the story in Halloween 5 is a bit stupid, and there's a lot more blood. They're obviously going to take the Halloween series in a different direction. — Donald Pleasence

I'll give you the bottom 10% and the top 10% of any move if I get to keep the middle 80%. — Bernard Baruch

It's hard to play a continuing character like Loomis for nearly 11 years and simply wash your hands of him. It seems a pity. — Donald Pleasence

I don't really know how many films I've done, and I don't look at this as a race that I necessarily want to win. Nor is it a race that I want to stop running. — Donald Pleasence

Continental directors, as opposed to British and American, tend to be somewhat high-handed in their approach. — Donald Pleasence

I was offered a choice of a flat salary up front or a percentage of the film's future earnings. I took the up front money. Nobody could have figured what Halloween would ultimately become. — Donald Pleasence

At the end of the first Halloween, when I shot 6 bullets into Michael Myers, John Carpenter said, Let's get a shot of you looking out of the window and seeing no one lying there. — Donald Pleasence

My wife's dying upstairs and I can't do anything about it. I look in her face and I see the memories there. I see how I hurt her and how I said the wrong things and how I got angry and how I wasn't the man she hoped I'd be. I see that in her face and I see she's going to die with that. You think I'm not preoccupied? — Stephen Dobyns

The first Halloween was very well made. The second one was also well made, though I didn't like it as well as the first one. The third one had nothing to do with the series at all and perhaps shouldn't have been made at all. — Donald Pleasence

There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America. — Harold Pinter

I'm the sort of actor who likes to talk about what we're going to do. — Donald Pleasence

The idea of dying and coming back is what makes the Halloween films work. — Donald Pleasence

The process of creation goes on all the time. When I get through, I feel I know what the character will do in every situation. But the building up of the part is not mechanical or deliberate. It grows out of the text. — Donald Pleasence

The most influential thinker, in my life, has been the psychologist Richard Nisbett. He basically gave me my view of the world. — Malcolm Gladwell

While I still do a lot of horror, it doesn't feel to me like I'm repeating myself. I like to stay interested. I'm kind of turning into one of those elder statesmen, like a Vincent Price or a Donald Pleasence. I like to think of myself alongside those guys. — Robert Englund

With acting, when you're reading a script, you're regurgitating someone else's words. There's a whole part of your brain that's off duty. — Vanessa Lachey

I am not one of those actors who believes he has to live the part he is playing. I can turn it on and off. — Donald Pleasence

I believe you can frighten people without showing their heads caved-in. — Donald Pleasence

I've worked with some terrific actors. The list of guys that came on the 'Columbo' show, I mean they were world-class actors from all over the world - Oskar Werner, Laurence Harvey, Donald Pleasence, you know ... foreigners. — Peter Falk

It's gotten to the point where it's big news when I don't do a horror film. — Donald Pleasence

Be strong, be strong. — Lailah Gifty Akita

I'm hardly physically right for the hero parts, now am I? — Donald Pleasence

Require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them, in order to prevent frivolous ones. Discourage vice in every shape, and impress upon the mind of every man, from the first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what it is they are contending for. — George Washington

At this point in my career, it doesn't bother me much that I'm probably hopelessly typecast. I like to work, and horror films definitely keep me working. — Donald Pleasence

John Carpenter created the idea of Halloween, so his vision remains the most focused and intelligently directed of the series. The directors that have followed have kept the original intent of the concept. — Donald Pleasence

Loomis has always felt himself responsible for the fact that he did not stop Michael when he first murdered his sister, and so he's got that guilt to live with. — Donald Pleasence

I loved working with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I felt she was a wonderful actress even that early in her career. — Donald Pleasence

The play is on top of me all the time, and I am constantly thinking about it. Even when I leave the theatre, I'll mumble the lines to myself or think about the way the character walks or holds himself. — Donald Pleasence

What can I tell you about things like Circus of Horrors except that I get killed by the bear? — Donald Pleasence

The process of building a part doesn't really stop. — Donald Pleasence

I came from a family of physical abuse. He came from one that had a psychological terrorist. — Dan Skinner

Israel cannot afford to stand against the entire world and be denounced as the aggressor. — Moshe Dayan

I think people have a tendency to read into more than there is. — Donald Pleasence