Anthony Hopkins unafraid of death

Veteran

actor Anthony Hopkins said he is not afraid of death and does not understand the brouhaha around the impending event.


The 80-year-old

star

said it is frustrating how people always try to evade the subject.

Asked if he is frightened of death, Hopkins told, "Not at all. I've got no choice. What's the point in being frightened? We're all going to die. It's the inability to use words properly. 'He passed on'.

"What do you mean? He died. There's no respectable way of looking at it. When you're dead, you're a lump of meat and you decay very rapidly."

He said he wants to spend the rest of his life doing what he loves.

"I don't think I will go mad now. The best I can say of myself is that I've tunnelled through the mountain of my life and come out the other side.

"I think once you get past the mid-70s and you're in your 80s, then you feel OK because you know your time is limited and you'd better get on with it and enjoy it," he said.

The Academy Award-winning actor said he urges people not to take their lives so seriously.

"I say this to the young kids, 'Don't take yourself so seriously! We're all going to be dead one day'. I tell myself every morning, 'You're not so hot. You're not that important.'

"We spend so much time worrying about what people are thinking of us and they're not thinking of us. They've got better things to do. They're thinking about themselves. It's like Humphrey Bogart said, life is for the living 'We're all just three drinks behind'. I like that philosophy."