structural:scholar_edition
Interests and influences

In an interview with NPR in December 2006, O'Toole revealed that he knew all 154 of Shakespeare 's sonnets. A self-described romantic, O'Toole said of the sonnets that nothing in the English language compares with them, and that he read them daily. In Venus (2006), he recites Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?").

O'Toole wrote two memoirs. Loitering with Intent: The Child chronicles his childhood in the years leading up to the Second World War, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1992. His second, Loitering With Intent: The Apprentice, is about his years spent training with a cadre of friends at RADA.

O'Toole was interviewed at least three times by Charlie Rose on his eponymous talk show. In a 17 January 2007 interview, O'Toole stated that British actor Eric Porter had most influenced him, adding that the difference between actors of yesterday and today is that actors of his generation were trained for "theatre, theatre, theatre". He also believes that the challenge for the actor is "to use his imagination to link to his emotion" and that "good parts make good actors." However, in other venues (including the DVD commentary for Becket), O'Toole credited Donald Wolfit as being his most important mentor.