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The Art of Acting Quotes Showing 1-30 of 31

“Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you.”
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tags: acting, actors, success-in-business, theatre

“The thing that makes you say, 'I want to do something' - that is the beginning of talent.”
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tags: acting, dreams, goals-in-life, inspirational, self-motivation, self-realization, talent

“You will only fail to learn if you do not learn from failing.”
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tags: dreams, failure, inspirational, learning-from-mistakes, life-lessons, success

“You cannot afford to confine your studies to the classroom. The universe and all of history is your classroom.”
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tags: acting, history, learning, life-lessons, studying, worldliness

“Your job as actors is to understand the size of what you say, to understand what's beneath the word.”
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tags: acting, actors, script, scriptwriting, theatre, theatre-plays

“You have to do something. If you do something, you become somebody. Even a daffodil does something, has a profession. It gives off scent, professionally.”
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tags: acting, life-purpose, occupation, self-esteem

“When you most succeed, you do so by seeming not to act at all.”
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“Emotions aren't doable. Actions are doable, and if you do them correctly, they prompt the feelings.”
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“Tell yourself that the world is outside, that it's not to be hidden from you, that you are going to thrust yourself forward and be relaxed in the world. You have chosen a field where you're going to be hurt to the blood. But to retreat from the pain is death”
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tags: acting, auditions, dreams, filmmaking, theatre

“You have to understand your best. Your best isn't Barrymore's best or Olivier's best or my best, but your own. Every person has his norm. And in that norm every person is a star. Olivier could stand on his head and still not be you. Only you can be you. What a privilege! Nobody can reach what you can if you do it. So do it. We need your best, your voice, your body. We don't need for you to imitate anybody, because that would be second best. And second best is no better than your worst.”
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tags: acting, confidence, drama, self-belief, self-esteem, theatre

“You'll begin to act when you can forget your technique - when it is so securely inside you that you need not call upon it consciously.”
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“You will fail. That's great. Here's a secret for you - that's the only way you can learn. Learning has to cost you something. If you fail but learn something from your failure, you will grow.”
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tags: acting, dreams, failure, inspirational, self-motivation, success

“No actor is a success unless he feels inside himself, as long as he lives, that he is good.”
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“The actor must be full of passion. If he's too cool he's better off as the manager of a company, not someone who appears on the stage.”
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“You should want to act only because you want to be led to something bigger in life.”
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“You'll never really be great unless you aim high.”
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tags: acting, drama, dreams, goal-achievement, success, theatre

“Acting can be the healthiest profession in the world, because it allows you to do things you can't do in real life. It allows you to understand more than just what life provides you.”
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“By taking elements you observe in life, you can develop qualities in your acting life that you don't ordinarily call upon in your personal life.”
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“If you can't take both sides, it means you can only play yourself.”
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“Acting requires a creative and compassionate attitude. It must aim to lift life up to a higher level of meaning and not tear it down or demean it. The actor's search is a generous quest for that larger meaning. That's why acting is never to be done passively.”
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“You may have been corrupted into thinking that you are important. If so you are a lost creature waiting for the world to come to you. An actress’s whole life can be ruined if she expects life to come to her. Tell yourself that the world is outside, that it’s not to be hidden from you, that you are going to thrust yourself forward and be relaxed in the world. You have chosen a field where you’re going to be hurt to the blood. But to retreat from the pain is death.”
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“The leveling down of the European man is our greatest danger. This is the prospect that depresses us. Today we see nothing that wants to become greater. We suspect that all goes ever downward, becoming thinner, more sleazy, smarter, cozier, more ordinary, more indifferent. Exactly here lies the crisis. With the fear of man, we have also lost the love of man - reverence for him, hope in him. The human prospect wearies us. What is the current nihilism if it is not that? We are tired of man.”
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“The result of this is a disrespect for the world in general and a foreignness to anything around him that isn't immediately recognizable to his everyday habits. He has even begun to lose perspective on what his own assets and faults are, because he has nothing to measure these things against.”
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“When it's really fashionable, there's something wrong.
An actor once came up to me and said, 'I'm a Meth. . .' and he mumbled something. I said, 'Get out of here. I don't want that around. It's too corrupt.”
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“If you learn how to work and grow, you will find that your life cannot be destroyed by the outside world. If you have to work eight hours a day, give three or one that belongs to you without money. This 'Who Are You?' has to be reinforced.”
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