64 Quotes by Brian Blessed

My dream is to own a Hockney – I’m a Yorkshireman, and his vibrant colours are a good example of how the north-country people are vibrant and colourful.

So the first time I ever came into contact with O’Toole was at one of these very gatherings. I remember it well because I’d just punched Harold Pinter down a flight of stairs. Oh yes, I’m afraid so. No long dramatic pauses this time, Harold; he got one right on the side of the jaw. Wham!

I wasn’t good at examinations, but I went to a very good secondary school – Bolton-on-Dearne – with wonderful teachers, who taught me drama and encouraged me in every way.

I’ve become quite a serious explorer: I’ve been to Everest three times; I’m the oldest man to reach the North Pole; and I’ve just been to the lost world of Venezuela.

There will be no funeral! Before I get too old and ill, I’ll go to South America and live among the Pemon people and meditate. When the time is right, they can throw my body into the volcano.

Ninety-Five percent of the things we worry about in life never actually happen but that’s the human brain for you. It can help us do all kinds of wonderful things but can also be an absolute nightmare!

I’ve always been generous and like giving to charities and people in need.

People talk about the difference between radio acting, TV acting and stage acting, but I think it’s all the same. For instance, when I played Vultan in ‘Flash Gordon,’ I put as much energy into it as I would with ‘King Lear’ – it’s all part of the same thing.

I had to leave school at 14 because my father got injured in the mines and I had to support my family. I was an undertaker's assistant, then a plasterer, before doing my military service in the RAF. All the while, I was doing amateur dramatics and dreaming of getting a scholarship to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.