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

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Sports, Humility, Self Confidence

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• Have a very good reason for everything you do.

  Laurence Olivier

  Success, Business, Integrity

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• Acting is an everlasting search for truth.

  Laurence Olivier

  Theatre, Acting, Everlasting

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• Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.

  Laurence Olivier

  Theatre, Weakness, Use

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Intelligent, Thinking, Innovation

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• 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

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Eye, Incarnation

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

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• In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation's generosities this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it . . . the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it . . . must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth of the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow.

  Laurence Olivier

  Beautiful, Stars, Kindness

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Critics, Outrageous

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• 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.

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• 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

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Lying, Acting, Convincing

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

  Laurence Olivier

  Theatre, Noses, Audience

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

  Laurence Olivier

  Ideas, Alive, New Ideas

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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

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• [May 1958, on playing Macbeth at age 30 and age 48] When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

  Laurence Olivier

  Character, Men, Age

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• Life is enthusiasm, zest.

  Laurence Olivier

  Zest, Enthusiasm, Life Is

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