Motivational Quotes

Acting and actors

If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.

- George, Boy

Best Quotes about Acting and actors

I am the Fred Astaire of karate.

Damme, Jean-Claude Van

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

Glass, George

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

Duras, Marguerite

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

Barkin, Ellen

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

Howard, Ron

You know how in high school you do these plays and people come up after the show and they're really excited for you? Well, that's what's happening to me right now.

Sorvino, Mira

We are born at the rise of the curtain and we die with its fall, and every night in the presence of our patrons we write our new creation, and every night it is blotted out forever; and of what use is it to say to audience or to critic, Ah, but you should have seen me last Tuesday?

Macliammoir, Micheal

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

Field, Eugene

To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

10.

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

11.

The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part.

Cervantes, Miguel De

12.

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

Vaughan, Bill

13.

Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that. [On his acting techniques]

D'Onofrio, Vincent

14.

An actor who knows his business ought to be able to make the London telephone directory sound enthralling.

Sinden, Donald

15.

If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role.

George, Boy

16.

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

Quinn, Anthony

17.

Stage charm guarantees in advance an actor's hold on the audience, it helps him to carry over to large numbers of people his creative purposes. It enhances his roles and his art. Yet it is of utmost importance that he use this precious gift with prudence, wisdom, and modesty. It is a great shame when he does not realize this and goes on to exploit, to play on his ability to charm.

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

18.

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

19.

I was sitting in the looping studio late one night, and I had this epiphany that they weren't paying me for my acting, for God's sake, but to own me. And from then on, it became clear and an awful lot easier to deal with.

Lawless, Lucy

20.

Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.

Moreau, Jeanne

21.

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

Diderot, Denis

22.

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

23.

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

Hitchcock, Alfred

24.

When I was a fireman I was in a lot of burning buildings. It was a great job, the only job I ever had that compares with the thrill of acting. Before going into a fire, there's the same surge of adrenaline you get just before the camera rolls.

Buscemi, Steve

25.

People say I'm cocky, but am I supposed to sit here and be insecure and not know where my future's going or not realize that moviemaking is the greatest thing to happen to me?

Lewis, Juliette

26.

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

Garland, Judy

27.

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

Half, Robert

28.

Actors die so loud.

Miller, Henry

29.

You name it and I've done it. I'd like to say I did it my way. But that line, I'm afraid, belongs to someone else.

Davis Jr., Sammy

30.

All men practice the actor's art.

Petron

31.

Actors are one family over the entire world.

Woodard, Alfre

32.

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

Barthes, Roland

33.

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

34.

You are not in business to be popular.

Alley, Kirstie

35.

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

36.

The best actors do not let the wheels show.

Fonda, Henry

37.

This is not a tough job. You read a script. If you like the part and the money is O.K., you do it. Then you remember your lines. You show up on time. You do what the director tells you to do. When you finish, you rest and then go on to the next part. That's it.

Mitchum, Robert

38.

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

Forrest, Edwin

39.

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

40.

There are no small parts. Only small actors.

Rogers, Ginger

41.

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

42.

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

43.

A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming.

Fonda, Jane

44.

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

Carrey, Jim

45.

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

Hazlitt, William

46.

An agent is a person who is sore because an actor gets 90% of what they make.

Johnson, Alva

47.

I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.

Stallone, Sylvester

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.

The real actor has a direct line to the collective heart.

Davis, Bette

50.

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