Motivational Quotes

Acting and actors

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

Best Quotes about Acting and actors

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

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

Welles, Orson

I'm disappointed in acting as a craft. I want everything to go back to Orson Welles and fake noses and changing your voice. It's become so much about personality.

Ulrich, Skeet

You are not in business to be popular.

Alley, Kirstie

I was born at the age of twelve on a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot.

Garland, Judy

The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.

Auden, W. H.

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

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

A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

10.

I was planning to go into architecture. But when I arrived, architecture was filled up. Acting was right next to it, so I signed up for acting instead. [On his college registration experience]

Selleck, Tom

11.

The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event.

Barthes, Roland

12.

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

Duras, Marguerite

13.

I am the Fred Astaire of karate.

Damme, Jean-Claude Van

14.

The most minor gifts and not a very high class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four.

Hepburn, Katharine

15.

After Blood Simple, everybody thought I was from Texas. After Mississippi Burning, everybody thought I was from Mississippi and uneducated. After Fargo, everybody's going to think I'm from Minnesota, pregnant, and have blonde hair. I don't think you can ever completely transform yourself on film, but if you do your job well, you can make people believe that you're the character you're trying to be.

McDormand, Frances

16.

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

Forrest, Edwin

17.

Talk to them about things they don't know. Try to give them an inferiority complex. If the actress is beautiful, screw her. If she isn't, present her with a valuable painting she will not understand. If they insist on being boring, kick their asses or twist their noses. And that's about all there is to it.

Huston, John

18.

Celebrity is death --- celebrity -- that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor.

Cusack, John

19.

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

Glass, George

20.

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

Thomas, Jonathan Taylor

21.

First of all, I choose the great [roles], and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

Caine, Michael

22.

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.

Lewis, Daniel Day

23.

A lot of what acting is paying attention.

Redford, Robert

24.

Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

Goldblum, Jeff

25.

A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.

Brecht, Bertolt

26.

It's a business you go into because you're an egocentric. It's a very embarrassing profession.

Hepburn, Katharine

27.

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

Moore, Mary Tyler

28.

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

Leoni, Tea

29.

In Europe an actor is an artist. In Hollywood, if he isn't working, he's a bum.

Quinn, Anthony

30.

Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for.

Jackson, Glenda

31.

I want to do a musical movie. Like Evita, but with good music.

John, Elton

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.

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

Vaughan, Bill

34.

There are no small parts. Only small actors.

Rogers, Ginger

35.

I find myself fascinating.

Dreyfus, Richard

36.

Actors are one family over the entire world.

Woodard, Alfre

37.

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

Pacino, Al

38.

The best actors do not let the wheels show.

Fonda, Henry

39.

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

40.

I don't think there's a punch-line scheduled, is there?

Python, Monty

41.

The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history.

Campbell, Thomas

42.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

43.

I have tried to be as eclectic as I possibly can with my professional life, and so far it's been pretty fun.

Hunter, Holly

44.

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

45.

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

Hepburn, Katharine

46.

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

Close, Glenn

47.

There were many times my pants were so thin I could sit on a dime and tell if it was heads or tails.

Tracy, Spencer

48.

Acting on a good idea is better than just having a good idea.