Motivational Quotes

Acting and actors

We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to.

- Amiel, Henri Frederic

Best Quotes about Acting and actors

The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

In civilized life, where the happiness and indeed almost the existence of man, depends on the opinion of his fellow men. He is constantly acting a studied part.

Irving, Washington

I really think that effective acting has to do literally with the movement of molecules.

Close, Glenn

You reach a point where you say you're not going to do juveniles any longer.

Howard, Ron

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

Shaw, George Bernard

The actor's popularity is evanescent; applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.

Forrest, Edwin

I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep.

Diderot, Denis

The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting.

Chaplin, Charlie

For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.

Barrymore, Ethel

10.

The great actors are the luminous ones. They are the great conductors of the stage.

Fiske, Minnie

11.

You don't merely give over your creativity to making a film -- you give over your life! In theatre, by contrast, you live these two rather strange lives simultaneously; you have no option but to confront the mould on last night's washing-up.

Lewis, Daniel Day

12.

Remember this practical piece of advice: Never come into the theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing -- all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art -- at the door.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

13.

I am the Fred Astaire of karate.

Damme, Jean-Claude Van

14.

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

15.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful -- my personal life suffers.

Pacino, Al

16.

I never said all actors are cattle, what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle.

Hitchcock, Alfred

17.

Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant.

Jackson, Glenda

18.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you -- tripping on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as Leif the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.

Shakespeare, William

19.

Actors die so loud.

Miller, Henry

20.

I don't get acting jobs because of my looks.

Baldwin, Alec

21.

She represents the un-vowed aspiration of the male human being, his potential infidelity -- and infidelity of a very special kind, which would lead him to the opposite of his wife, to the woman of wax whom he could model at will, make and unmake in any way he wished, even unto death.

Duras, Marguerite

22.

They are the only honest hypocrites, their life is a voluntary dream, a studied madness.

Hazlitt, William

23.

An actor is a guy who, if you ain't talking about him, he ain't listening.

Glass, George

24.

Every actor in his heart believes everything bad that's printed about him.

Welles, Orson

25.

You can't do four movies and be good to everybody and be flying all night and shooting all day with a different wig and then be going to sing on Broadway without feeling a little tired. You endlessly feel you're letting somebody down.

Parker, Sarah Jessica

26.

Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.

Brando, Marlon

27.

If you give an audience a chance they will do half your acting for you.

Hepburn, Katharine

28.

The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.

Wilde, Oscar

29.

You are not in business to be popular.

Alley, Kirstie

30.

A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming.

Fonda, Jane

31.

Actors often behave like children, and so we're taken for children. I want to be grown up.

Irons, Jeremy

32.

I'd prefer not to be the pretty thing in a film. It's such a bloody responsibility to look cute, because people know when you don't and they're like, They're trying to pass her off as the cute girl and she's looking like a bedraggled sack of potatoes.

Driver, Minnie

33.

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

Barkin, Ellen

34.

We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to.

Amiel, Henri Frederic

35.

Until Ace Ventura, no actor had considered talking through his ass.

Carrey, Jim

36.

Acting doesn't bring anything to a text. On the contrary, it detracts from it.

Duras, Marguerite

37.

I think I am a much better actor than I have allowed myself to be.

Spacey, Kevin

38.

I don't want to read about some of these actresses who are around today. They sound like my niece in Scarsdale. I love my niece in Scarsdale, but I won't buy tickets to see her act.

Price, Vincent

39.

Such is an actor's life. We must ride the waves of every film, barfing occasionally, yet maintain our dignity, even as the bulk of our Herculean efforts are keel-hauled before our very eyes. [On filming MacHale's Navy]

Campbell, Bruce

40.

I don't do T & A very well because I haven't got much of either.

Leoni, Tea

41.

I'm not an actress who can create a character. I play me.

Moore, Mary Tyler

42.

One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.

Bresson, Robert

43.

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

44.

The hardest part has been maintaining a small head--remaining down to earth. So many people try to make you more than you are. This business has changed a lot of good people and a lot of good families, and I don't want that to happen to me.

Brandy

45.

Acting is a question of absorbing other people's personalities and adding some of your own experience.

Newman, Paul

46.

If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors.

Vaughan, Bill

47.

Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that.

Davies, Marion

48.

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.

Brando, Marlon

49.

Actors ought to be larger than life. You come across quite enough ordinary, nondescript people in daily life and I don't see why you should be subjected to them on the stage too.

Sinden, Donald

50.

I can't tell you how many shows I've done with full-blown migraine headaches.

Thomas, Jonathan Taylor