Bela Lugosi Quotes

Bela Lugosi reveals sly, humorous reflections on acting, typecasting and career that feel like a backstage chat.

24 quotes

1. Circumstances made me the theatrical personality I am, which many people believe is also a part of my personal life.

2. I do not drink...wine!

3. Every producer in Hollywood had set me down as a type. I was both amused and disappointed.

4. I guess I'm pretty much of a lone wolf. I don't say I don't like people at all but, to tell you the truth I only like it then if I have a chance to look deep into their hearts and their minds.

5. I'd like to quit the supernatural roles and play just an interesting, down-to-earth person.

6. I'll be truthful. The weekly paycheck is the most important thing to me.

7. 'Do you believe in vampires?' Yes. Three of them I married.

8. My name is..Count........Dracula

9. The former ruling class kept the community of actors in ignorance by means of various lies.

10. It is women who bear the race in bloody agony. Suffering is a kind of horror. Blood is a kind of horror. Women are born with horror in their very bloodstream. It is a biological thing.

11. In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy.

12. I have lived too completely. I think I have known every human emotion.

13. I've been using narcotics for 20 years.

14. I will not be tortured, I tear torture out of myself by torturing you!

15. It was hell to go through what I went through. I didn't know I had so many friends. Many people gave a damn about my situation. They helped cure me.

16. In Hungary, acting is a profession. In America, it is a decision.

17. Death, the final, triumphant lover.

18. A screen actor is compensated in the knowledge that millions will see his performance at one time, where only hundreds will see it on the stage.

19. You can't make people believe in you if you play a horror part with your tongue in your cheek.

20. I don't have a dime left. I am dependent on my friends for food and a small old-age pension.

21. Because of my language and the pantomime with which most Europeans accompany their speech, I was catalogued as a heavy.

22. To portray a maniac offers a compelling challenge.

23. My close-up was magnificent!

24. The actor depends wholly on himself. He gives his performance in what, to him, seems the most effective manner.