Paul Scofield: Want

“It isn't difficult to leave King Lear or Macbeth, but once you have gone back to yourself, you want it to be the same self you have always been.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Alan Strachan, "Paul Scofield: Oscar-winning actor whose phenomenal range was unmatched in his generation" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/paul-scofield-oscarwinning-actor-whose-phenomenal-range-was-unmatched-in-his-generation-798984.html, The Independent (2008-03-21)

“I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to be a star personality and live my life out in public. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wave personality about like a flag and become labeled.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Benedict Nightingale, "Paul Scofield, British Actor, Dies at 86" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/movies/21scofield.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin, The New York Times (2008-03-21)

Life , Star , Idea , Thinking

“I feel incredibly lucky to have discovered early in my life, practically when I was a child, that I could do something that in the end I finally wanted to do all my life. It has something to do with being completely removed from oneself, which doesn't necessarily mean one is uncomfortable inside oneself. It just means it's a great relief to be inhabiting somebody else. It can be a tremendously liberating sensation.”

Paul Scofield

Dennis McLellan, "Obituary: Paul Scofield, 86; award-winning British actor," The Los Angeles Times (2008-03-21)

Life , Feeling

“I found at this point that effective acting wasn't what I wanted to do, that I didn't want to make effects, that I wanted, as it were, to leave an impression of a particular kind of human being.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Garry O'Connor, Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons (Applause Books, 2002, ISBN 1-557-83499-7), ch. 22 (p. 131)

“If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr? If you have always been that, then why lose your title?
I have a title, which is the same one that I have always had.
But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully.”

Paul Scofield

On his refusal of a knighthood.
"Paul Scofield: Man for all seasons" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1092962.stm, BBC News (2000-12-30)