Quotes by Derek Jacobi

Ultimately it's a leap of faith and a leap of imagination to put yourself back in time into those conditions and situations and see how you would react.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

One of the last episodes was all about a flood. We were working in the rain till all hours, and it was muddy and it was cold and it was damp, and it was hours under the hoses. That was not pleasant. That was not pleasant.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

We started filming in 1993 which was only four years after the fall of communism. The difference in Budapest over the last five years has been remarkable.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

You have to get through the Hamlet hoop as a young actor. Your classical qualifications are based on the quality of your Hamlet. And then, as an older actor, you have to get through the Lear hoop. And I'm approaching the Lear hoop.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

There's never been any game plan or thread through my career. It's just happened that I've ricocheted from one interesting character to another.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

I am an actor and I live in the world of pretend in my working capacity. I live in the world of my imagination.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

Actors, I don't think, ever really grow up. I'm hoping that that rejuvenating process applies to me, too. It has so far. I've been very lucky.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

Ellis Peters's historical detail is very accurate and very minute, and therefore is not only interesting to read but good for an actor to acquire a sense of the period. And the other thing I think is that an actor lives in the land of imagination.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

I would like to be as fit as I've always been. I've been blessed with good health, I've been blessed with stamina. Particularly for those great classical roles, you need an Olympian stamina. I, fortunately, have that.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

It's often difficult to slough off all that we've acquired, all the comforts and safety nets modern life provides for us, and realize that in those days, people were living very much on the edge - life was incredibly hard!

— Derek Jacobi

Life

What was so good about it was that the set that they originally built stayed there, and weathered over the five years. It got five summers and five winters of weather. It became more and more authentic as we worked in it, and they added bits to it.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

He was somebody who made me think, I suppose, about the contemplative life. I've always been a city fellow, but I've often had vague thoughts about 'checking out' and perhaps going into a monastery and just seeing what it was like.

— Derek Jacobi

Life

I don't think he's permanently affected me except in the sense that I miss him. I miss being him. Or trying to be him. He is one of a gallery of characters that have had an impact on my career and therefore my life.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

I shall miss all the people in it and the great fun we had doing it. I enjoyed playing the character very much. It was a very, very special character and a very special series. And the camaraderie of it all. I loved it.

— Derek Jacobi

Happiness

Real-life people are often the hardest to play, people that you recreate who have actually lived, because you have to live up to people's knowledge of those characters.

— Derek Jacobi

Education

He was living in an age much more dangerous, more painful, much more on the edge than our own particular age.

— Derek Jacobi

Life

I never lose that terror of 'this is my last job, I'll never work again.' You can never relax and rely on whatever reputation you've built.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

I think that each character has fascinated and interested me enough to want to play him.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

I thought it was getting better and better, because the production values were increasing each time we did it.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

Every person who is offered a knighthood has the opportunity to say yes or no. You get a letter from the Prime Minister saying you've been recommended for a knighthood and there are two little boxes, one says yes, one says no.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

I had to think long and hard about what it would imply, what it would mean. Would it mean any alterations of one's lifestyle? Or, more than that, the way that people regarded you? The way they reacted to you if you had a Sir in front of your name?

— Derek Jacobi

Life

I think actors always retain one foot in the cradle. We're switched on to our youth, to our childhood. We have to be because we're in the business of transferring emotions to other people.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought, 'Well if acting doesn't work for him, he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately, the acting worked out.

— Derek Jacobi

Success

I truly don't know why it was ended, though. It was suddenly decided that that would be it. They never said particularly why, because they were cut off in their prime.

— Derek Jacobi

Wisdom