Laurence Olivier Quotes

Quotes about:

• Don't waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence - doing your best.

  Laurence Olivier

  Perfection, Excellence, Waste

  71 Copy quote

• The humility to prepare and the self-confidence to bring it off.

  Laurence Olivier

  Sports, Humility, Self Confidence

  74 Copy quote

• Have a very good reason for everything you do.

  Laurence Olivier

  Success, Business, Integrity

  60 Copy quote

• Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. You'll be afraid you can't achieve it. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.

  Laurence Olivier

  Perfection, Excellence, Excuse

  28 Copy quote

• Don't be afraid to be outrageous; the critics will shoot you down anyway.

  Laurence Olivier

  Critics, Outrageous

  17 Copy quote

• The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.

  Laurence Olivier

  Art, Actors, Firsts

  Hal Burton, Laurence Olivier (1967). “Great acting: Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike, Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft, Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Noël Coward”, British Broadcasting Corporation

  29 Copy quote

• Acting is an everlasting search for truth.

  Laurence Olivier

  Theatre, Acting, Everlasting

  14 Copy quote

• No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.

  Laurence Olivier

  Intelligent, Thinking, Innovation

  23 Copy quote

• Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.

  Laurence Olivier

  Theatre, Weakness, Use

  28 Copy quote

• Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.

  Laurence Olivier

  Eye, Incarnation

  In 'Kenneth Harris Talking To' 'Sir Laurence Olivier'

  22 Copy quote

• What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?

  Laurence Olivier

  Lying, Acting, Convincing

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  21 Copy quote

• Above all, you must remain open and fresh and alive to any new idea.

  Laurence Olivier

  Ideas, Alive, New Ideas

  16 Copy quote

• Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

  Laurence Olivier

  Funny, Humorous, Acting

  In Time 3 July 1978, p. 33

  87 Copy quote

• Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.

  Laurence Olivier

  Intuition, Natural Instinct, Instinct

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  30 Copy quote

• I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.

  Laurence Olivier

  Life, Wisdom, Thinking

  7 Copy quote

• Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.

  Laurence Olivier

  Real, Magic, Acting

  "Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage". Book by William C. Young, 1975.

  22 Copy quote

• Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

  Laurence Olivier

  Life, Disappointment, Sunset

  12 Copy quote

• I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

  Laurence Olivier

  Knowledge, Heart, Theatre

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  20 Copy quote

• I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.

  Laurence Olivier

  Believe, Cities, Theatre

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  19 Copy quote

• In spite of a heavy disguise, a few days' growth on my face, dark glasses, a beret and one of William's jackets that fitted me not at all, as I emerged from a hotel in Lecce, a young fisherman pointed me out to his friends and said "Lavrenche Olivaire." It was not all that amazing; if you're not known in Italy, you're not known anywhere.

  Laurence Olivier

  Funny, Humor, Dark

  20 Copy quote

• What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.

  Laurence Olivier

  Home, Sleep, Feelings

  14 Copy quote

• If I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights.

  Laurence Olivier

  Thinking, Mad, Gone

  "Laurence Olivier". Book by Foster Hirsch, 1979.

  53 Copy quote

• I am far from sure when I am acting and when I am not or, should I more frankly put it, when I am lying and when I am not. For what is acting but lying and what is good acting but convincing lying?

  Laurence Olivier

  Funny, Lying, Humorous

  4 Copy quote

• Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.

  Laurence Olivier

  Art, Thinking, Needs

  "Laurence Olivier". Book by Foster Hirsch, 1979.

  17 Copy quote

• You think you're an artist; prove it

  Laurence Olivier

  Artist, Thinking, Prove It

  5 Copy quote

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