Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, Actor, Director and Film Producer

Beyond the Mask puts everything in its place…perspective and a tremendous bolt of courage and inspiration.

—Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, Actor, Director and Film Producer

From Beyond the Mask

Live your life the way you want, never mind what anyone else may think, because it’s your life.

You simply can’t win at all costs. It’s a logical impossibility. It’s a statement that eats itself. If you have paid all the costs—damaging relationships, breaking laws, breaking your own ethical code—they you have lost. It doesn’t matter what it says on the scoreboard or your balance sheet.

If you’re not betting on yourself all the time, you’re just gambling.

Make a list of all the people who believe in you, with all your many capabilities and talents. Are you number one on the list? If not, then something needs fixing.

Life is a gift, not a given.

You can’t hide. From yourself, sure, sometimes. But usually not from the rest of us. And in the end, not from yourself either.

Not many people have jarring facts about themselves, right there for everyone to see like I do. But everyone’s got something about which they’re self-conscious. Would a light-hearted comment about it help? Give expression to what you feel others might but don’t want to say.

There can be no success, no real life success, period, without attention to people.

What we understand now is so tiny compared to what we have yet to understand.

There is always a cost to avoiding confrontation, especially if the one you’re avoiding is you.

Your job in life is to be a ‘foxhole friend’ for as many people as you can.

When you help someone else, you help yourself in a way that can’t really be equaled by any other activity.

I looked unique so why not live a unique life. Why not be myself?

Believe it or not, for all the variety and choice in the world, there’s always an absolutely right way to do things.

We all have blind spots. When you’re in a room and you’re looking around for the idiot and you can’t find him, it’s probably you.

You aren’t what you do once. You are what you do all the time.

If you believe in yourself – your effort, your attention to detail, your integrity, your ultimate goals – then there’s zero risk involved in how you live your life.

People see the ‘worst’ of me the moment they lay eyes on me. So why not just be who I am, which is so much better than what they may think I am. Nothing holds me back.

If your position is unique, then maybe don’t bother listening to people who think they’re so wise, when their experience of the world is so different.

Life is about having purpose and dignity. There. That’s pretty much it. If you can help one person, then you have a purpose, and by helping them gain dignity, you do, too.

Look in the mirror. Know yourself. Be yourself.

Whenever you do a favor for someone, however big or small, do it all the way—not halfway or three-quarters of the way. Do it in such a way that all they have to do is sit back, enjoy and appreciate the gesture.

Having expectations of your own doesn’t mean you have pressure, it means you have purpose.

There are only two choices before you, at all times: Accept what happened or slowly be ruined by what happened.

When you look in the mirror, really look. If you’re just glancing, don’t waste your time (or the reflection’s).

Moments happen, no matter what you think you’re going to do to stop them from happening. But either the moments define you or you define the moments.

I’ve mourned the loss of the 17-year-old Brian but celebrated the new and improved Brian who is stronger and heartier for having gone through what he did.