Quotes from book
My Autobiography

My Autobiography

My Autobiography is a book by Charlie Chaplin, first published by Simon & Schuster in 1964. Along with Chaplin: His Life and Art, it provided the source material for the 1992 feature film Chaplin. It provides a revealing look into the life of a 20th-century filmmaker and celebrity. The Chicago Tribune said the book was “The best autobiography ever written by an actor. An astonishing work.”


Charlie Chaplin photo

“My faith is in the unknown, in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions,”

My Autobiography, p. 291
Context: I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas. Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics. I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces. My faith is in the unknown, in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions, and that in the realm of the unknown there is an infinite power for good.

Charlie Chaplin photo
Charlie Chaplin photo

“From such trivia, I believe my soul was born.”

Source: My Autobiography

Charlie Chaplin photo

“I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.”
―Charles Chaplin”

Variant: I like to walk in rain, so that nobody can see my tears.
Source: My Autobiography

Charlie Chaplin photo

“I am what I am: an individual, unique and different”

My Autobiography (p. 271 Simon and Schuster 1964 edition)
Context: I am what I am: an individual, unique and different, with a lineal history of an ancestral promptings and urgings, a history of dreams, desires, and of special experiences, of all of which I am the sum total.

Charlie Chaplin photo
Charlie Chaplin photo
Charlie Chaplin photo

“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”

Source: My Autobiography (1964), Ch. 10

Charlie Chaplin photo

“In this desperate way, I started many a comedy.”

Source: My Autobiography

Charlie Chaplin photo
Charlie Chaplin photo

“My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist.”

My Autobiography (1964)
Context: Friends have asked how I came to engender this American antagonism. My prodigious sin was, and still is, being a non-conformist. Although I am not a Communist I refused to fall in line by hating them.
Secondly, I was opposed to the Committee on Un-American Activities — a dishonest phrase to begin with, elastic enough to wrap around the throat and strangle the voice of any American citizen whose honest opinion is a minority of one.

Charlie Chaplin photo

“I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas.”

My Autobiography, p. 291
Context: I believe that faith is a precursor of all our ideas. Without faith, there never could have evolved hypothesis, theory, science or mathematics. I believe that faith is an extension of the mind. It is the key that negates the impossible. To deny faith is to refute oneself and the spirit that generates all our creative forces. My faith is in the unknown, in all that we do not understand by reason; I believe that what is beyond our comprehension is a simple fact in other dimensions, and that in the realm of the unknown there is an infinite power for good.

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