Motivational Quotes

Acting and actors

Ah just act the way ah feel.

- Presley, Elvis

Best Quotes about Acting and actors

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

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

George, Boy

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

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

Quinn, Anthony

An actor is only merchandise.

Chow Yun-Fat

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

Newman, Paul

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

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

Cusack, John

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

Hitchcock, Alfred

10.

Acting is happy agony.

Guiness, Sir Alec

11.

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

12.

I think every American actor wants to be a movie star. But I never wanted to do stupid movies, I wanted to do films. I vowed I would never do a commercial, nor would I do a soap opera -- both of which I did as soon as I left the [Acting] Company and was starving.

Kline, Kevin

13.

I am the Fred Astaire of karate.

Damme, Jean-Claude Van

14.

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

15.

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

Chaplin, Charlie

16.

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

Half, Robert

17.

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

Amiel, Henri Frederic

18.

Actors are one family over the entire world.

Woodard, Alfre

19.

I'm an assistant storyteller. It's like being a waiter or a gas-station attendant, but I'm waiting on six million people a week, if I'm lucky. [On being an actor]

Ford, Harrison

20.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.

Wood, Elijah

21.

I'm an actor. And I guess I've done so many movies I've achieved some high visibility. But a star? I guess I still think of myself as kind of a worker ant.

Whitaker, Forest

22.

They are, as it were, train-bearers in the pageant of life, and hold a glass up to humanity, frailer than itself. We see ourselves at second-hand in them: they show us all that we are, all that we wish to be, and all that we dread to be. What brings the resemblance nearer is, that, as they imitate us, we, in our turn, imitate them. There is no class of society whom so many persons regard with affection as actors.

Hazlitt, William

23.

There are no small parts. Only small actors.

Rogers, Ginger

24.

I mean, the question actors most often get asked is how they can bear saying the same things over and over again, night after night, but God knows the answer to that is, don't we all anyway; might as well get paid for it.

Dundy, Elaine

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

Acting is the perfect idiot's profession.

Hepburn, Katharine

29.

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

Sinden, Donald

30.

Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

Barkin, Ellen

31.

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

Cervantes, Miguel De

32.

Every time I get a script it's a matter of trying to know what I could do with it. I see colors, imagery. It has to have a smell. It's like falling in love. You can't give a reason why.

Olin, Lena

33.

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

34.

Some people are addicts. If they don't act, they don't exist.

Moreau, Jeanne

35.

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

Duras, Marguerite

36.

I have to act to live.

Olivier, Sir Lawrence

37.

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

John, Elton

38.

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

39.

Actors die so loud.

Miller, Henry

40.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

41.

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

Stanislavisky, Konstantin

42.

Imagination, industry, and intelligence -- the three I s -- are all indispensable to the actress, but of these three the greatest is, without doubt, imagination.

Terry, Ellen

43.

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

Howard, Ron

44.

You spend all your life trying to do something they put people in asylums for.

Fonda, Jane

45.

An actress must never lose her ego--without it she has no talent.

Shearer, Norma

46.

The mug is a tool. My ace in the hole. To have looks is the bonus on top of what motivates me to be an actor. Not to realize they're an asset would be counterproductive to the cause; they serve the common good.

Zane, Billy

47.

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

48.

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

49.

Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised.

Moore, Roger

50.

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

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor