Theodore Bikel Quotes

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Theodore Bikel

Profession : Actor

Birth : May 2, 1924

It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'

Theodore Bikel

In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.

Theodore Bikel

You don't really need modernity in order to exist totally and fully. You need a mixture of modernity and tradition.

Theodore Bikel

Epistemology is the study of knowledge. By what conduit do we know what we know?

Theodore Bikel

No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it cannot be willed by mere declarations.

Theodore Bikel

The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.

Theodore Bikel

'Retiring' - within that word is 'tiring,' and I'm not tired. I don't believe in retirement, really.

Theodore Bikel

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

Theodore Bikel

When something is moving you get that intake of breath and that stillness from the audience.

Theodore Bikel

We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task.

Theodore Bikel

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

Theodore Bikel

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars, banjos, fiddles and words.

Theodore Bikel

Throughout my life I have cared as deeply about the songs of all peoples as I have about the rights of all peoples.

Theodore Bikel

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.

Theodore Bikel

What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.

Theodore Bikel

Despite a large body of work in films, TV, theatre and concerts, I am viewed by many as a Jewish artist. I do not resent the label, except for the fact that I disapprove of labels in general.

Theodore Bikel

I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.

Theodore Bikel

After the advent of the written word, the masses who could not - or were not permitted to - read, were given sermons by the few who could.

Theodore Bikel

We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.

Theodore Bikel

Having come to live in this age is as though one were to have entered another country. Learn its language or risk being left out.

Theodore Bikel