One of his quotes has been doing the rounds:
Born in County Galway in 1932, O’Toole wrote in a notebook as a boy: “I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/a-hero-and-a-hellraiser-film-and-theatre-icon-peter-otoole-dies-at-81-9006273.html
Initially I took this at face value and assumed that O'Toole had written it. However Lee Randall pointed out that it was a quote, and led me me to an interview by O'Toole with Talese in 63:
“I do not choose to be a common man…it is my right to be uncommon—if I can…I seek opportunity—not security…I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed… to refuse to barter incentive for a dole… I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence, the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopias….”
http://longform.org/stories/peter-o-toole-on-the-ould-sod
So the later quote is an addition, obviously, the Lawrence of Arabia meme played heavily in O'Toole's life. I suspect he may have been trapped by it, and somewhat like Orson Welles, he played his career in reverse.
But where does the original quote come from? Searching Google for the O'Toole augmentation only comes up with O'Toole. Instead, I searched for some words in the second half of the Talese quote, and came up with a poem by Dean Alfrange:
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/82410-my-creed-i-do-not-choose-to-be-a-common
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Dean Alfange > Quotes > Quotable Quote
“My Creed
I do not choose to be a common man,
It is my right to be uncommon … if I can,
I seek opportunity … not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen.
Humbled and dulled by having the
State look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk;
To dream and to build.
To fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life
To the guaranteed existence;
The thrill of fulfilment
To the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a handout
I will never cower before any master
Nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect.
Proud and unafraid;
To think and act for myself,
To enjoy the benefit of my creations
And to face the world boldly and say:
This, with God’s help, I have done
All this is what it means
To be an Entrepreneur.”
I do not choose to be a common man,
It is my right to be uncommon … if I can,
I seek opportunity … not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen.
Humbled and dulled by having the
State look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk;
To dream and to build.
To fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life
To the guaranteed existence;
The thrill of fulfilment
To the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a handout
I will never cower before any master
Nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect.
Proud and unafraid;
To think and act for myself,
To enjoy the benefit of my creations
And to face the world boldly and say:
This, with God’s help, I have done
All this is what it means
To be an Entrepreneur.”
Bingo.
One question remains. How did Peter O'Toole, an itinerant worker in Leeds at the time, come to know about this piece? Dean Alfrange's wikipedia entry is interesting.
His poem, "My Creed" appears in the Reader's Digest, 1952 and 1954. I like to think that somewhere in Leeds, 1952, a young go-getter of Irish extraction, a Billy Liar figure, read those words and, eventually, went for it.
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