Antony Sher Quotes

• I have a Woody Allen Jewish attitude to life: that it's all going to be disastrous. That it hasn't all been that way is simply down to some random quirk of fate.

  Antony Sher

  Attitude, Fate, Way

  "This much I know". Interview with Stuart Husband, www.theguardian.com. May 30, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• It's good for actors to confront those things we have to act: panic, pain and death.

  Antony Sher

  Pain, Actors, Panic

  4 Copy quote

• As a gay Jewish white South African, I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are, what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are.

  Antony Sher

  Courage, Gay, White

  7 Copy quote

• I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more.

  Antony Sher

  Language, Feels, I Can

  4 Copy quote

• The effort of learning. It's the same when you approach any new skill or technique, from a dance step to driving a car. The effort of learning stops you, at first, from doing it well.

  Antony Sher

  Skills, Car, Effort

  7 Copy quote

• Now the dressing-room full of RSC hierarchy. Suddenly Trevor Nunn pushes his way through and 'Trevs' me. I've heard a lot about this 'Trevving', but never had it done to me. From what I'd heard, a 'Trev' is an arm round your shoulder and a sideways squeeze. But this 'Trev' is a full frontal hug, so complete and so intimate that the dressing-room instantly clears, as if by suction. I'm left alone in the arms of this famous man wondering whether it's polite to let go.

  Antony Sher

  Letting Go, Men, Hug

  7 Copy quote

• I believe deeply in therapy. There's no one in the world who wouldn't benefit from it.

  Antony Sher

  Believe, Benefits, World

  "This much I know". Interview with Stuart Husband, www.theguardian.com. May 30, 2009.

  4 Copy quote

• I love playing outsiders, I always do.

  Antony Sher

  Outsiders

  4 Copy quote

• I feel so sorry for younger actors who aren't able to have the opportunities that I had, starting out in repertory theatre. It's really tough on young actors now.

  Antony Sher

  Sorry, Opportunity, Theatre

  "Antony Sher, actor - portrait of the artist". Interview with Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• Most of my career has been spent with the RSC doing Shakespeare, and the thing you learn from Shakespeare is that his historical plays don't bear anything other than a basic resemblance to history.

  Antony Sher

  Resemblance Is, Play, Careers

  7 Copy quote

• As we're leaving the King's Arms Hotel after Sunday lunch, I watch a beautiful white dove walking down the wet road. A car approaches and the bird accidentally turns into the wheel rather than away from it. A gentle crunch. The car passes. A shape like a discarded napkin left in the road. Still perfectly white, no red stains, but bearing no relation anymore to the shape of a bird. A trail of white feathers flutter down the road after the car. The suddeness is very upsetting. That gentle crunch.

  Antony Sher

  Beautiful, Kings, Sunday

  4 Copy quote

• Every play I do, every book I write, every painting I paint, I will struggle with. I don't know what it's like for a project to come easy.

  Antony Sher

  Struggle, Book, Writing

  4 Copy quote

• A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people.

  Antony Sher

  People, Actors, Introverted

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• I don't believe in an afterlife.

  Antony Sher

  Believe, Afterlife, Don't Believe

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• I've been quoting the book [on Peter Sutcliffe] constantly in rehearsals. Some members of the cast have stated their disapproval that it should even have been written. Some of the women have expressed more - disgust and anger. What are they saying? They'd prefer not to know, not to understand? They'd prefer certain areas of life to be censored? Isn't that partly what breeds the Sutcliffes and the Nilsens?

  Antony Sher

  Book, Rehearsal, Members

  4 Copy quote

• Life is just more comfortable if you're honest and open about everything. I spent so many years being in the closet about one thing or another.

  Antony Sher

  Years, Honest, Life Is

  9 Copy quote

• My grandparents all came from Lithuania to South Africa. My first novel, Middlepost, is a fictional account of that journey.

  Antony Sher

  Grandparent, Lithuania, South

  "Antony Sher: 'Painting and writing stop me going crazy'". Interview with Tim Adams, www.theguardian.com. January 14, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

• What drew me to acting in the first place was disguise.

  Antony Sher

  Acting, Firsts, Disguise

  5 Copy quote

• I was never built to play the hero. Physically or emotionally... And they're not as rewarding to play. At least for me.

  Antony Sher

  Hero, Play, Built

  4 Copy quote

• The whole of my acting career is a bit of a mystery to me.

  Antony Sher

  Careers, Acting, Mystery

  4 Copy quote

• When I'm painting and drawing I only do people. Acting is obviously portraiture - and writing is as well.

  Antony Sher

  Writing, Drawing, People

  4 Copy quote

• I'm always very proud of belonging to three minorities: gay, Jewish, white South African.

  Antony Sher

  Gay, White, Three

  4 Copy quote

• Reading Shakespeare is sometimes like looking through a window into a dark room. You don't see in. You see nothing but a reflection of yourself unable to see in. An unflattering image of yourself blind.

  Antony Sher

  Reading, Dark, Reflection

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• I'm a huge fan of David Hockney. I love the way he keeps reinventing himself.

  Antony Sher

  Fans, Way, Huge

  "Antony Sher, actor - portrait of the artist". Interview with Laura Barnett, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• I love the mixture that's in me. It makes me me. And that's why it's such a shame that people waste energy in denying who they are.

  Antony Sher

  People, Energy, Mixtures

  4 Copy quote

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