Accompanying the release of 2011’s The Rite, Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins gave an interview with BeliefNet discussing his personal belief systems. A voracious reader, Hopkins made frequent reference to the books and authors that most influenced and inspired his philosophy on life. Including work by Graham Greene, Plato, Albert Einstein, and Christopher Hitchens, Hopkin’s tastes in the written word offer a glimpse into the rich inner life of one of today’s greatest living actors.
Read on for a list of Anthony Hopkin’s favorite books on belief.
Letters and Papers From Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“I hope I would not be so arrogant as to doubt anyone’s religion or belief. If Dietrich Bonhoeffer…sacrificed his life in a Nazi concentration camp for his church, then who am I to refute anything?” -AH
The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski
“Bronowski said, ‘If we…try to reduce the human being to a number, we create an Auschwitz.’ In his book he’s actually standing in Auschwitz where he lost many members of his family where he said, ‘Because of certainty. Certainty is the killer.’” -AH
Ideas & Opinions by Albert Einstein
“Einstein believed in a non-personal God; believed in a mathematical intelligence in the back of the Cosmos…[He] was uncertain. He knew nothing. Yet he was probably one of the smartest geniuses of our time.” -AH
Monsignor Quixote by Graham Greene
“A wonderful book by Graham Greene, who is a powerful Catholic.” -AH
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens
“A brilliant atheist, a brilliant man.” -AH
The Last Days of Socrates by Plato
“I’m certain that I’m not certain. Socrates was told he was the wisest man of all and he said, ‘That’s impossible.’ He realized he knew nothing.” -AH
(via BeliefNet)