Acting From Actors Quotes

• I love acting. It is so much more real than life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Funny, Life

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.55, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.

  Marlon Brando

  Funny, Humorous, Acting

  "Marlon Brando: The Only Contender". Book by Gary Carey, Ch.13, 1985.

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

  Alfred Hitchcock

  Funny, Sarcastic, Acting

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• First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent.

  Michael Caine

  Funny, Humorous, Theatre

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• To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

  James Dean

  People, Acting, Needs

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant.

  Glenda Jackson

  Inspirational, Funny, Motivational

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

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• Acting is not being emotional, but being able to fully express emotion.

  Kate Reid

  Emotional, Acting, Actors

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• Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made.

  George Burns

  Funny, Success, Fake People

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• The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen.

  W. H. Auden

  Gentleman, Acting, Actors

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

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Funny, Character, Play

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1840). “The life and exploits of Don Quixote de la Mancha: In four volumes”, p.27

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• If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.

  Jack Lemmon

  Inspirational, Motivational, Acting

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• May the Force be with you.

  George Lucas

  Movie, Film History, Psychics

  Star Wars (motion picture) (1977)

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• If you get a chance to act in a room that somebody else has paid rent for, then you're given a free chance to practice your craft.

  Philip Seymour Hoffman

  Practice, Acting, Stage Actors

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• Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.

  Bette Davis

  Acting, Stage Actors, Wonder

  Bette Davis (1962). “The lonely life: an autobiography”, Putnam's

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• Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Funny, Mean, Men

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• Just be truthful - and if you can fake that, you've got it made.

  Barbara Stanwyck

  Success, Fake People, Truth

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• Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation.

  Aldous Huxley

  Art, Emotional, Abuse

  Aldous Huxley (1937). “Ends and Means: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization”, p.237, Transaction Publishers

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• A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist.

  Constantin Stanislavski

  Artist, Feelings, Acting

  Constantin Stanislavski (2013). “Building a Character”, p.216, A&C Black

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• Abused as we abuse it at present, dramatic art is in no sense cathartic; it is merely a form of emotional masturbation. It is the rarest thing to find a player who has not had his character affected for the worse by the practice of his profession. Nobody can make a habit of self-exhibition, nobody can exploit his personality for the sake of exercising a kind of hypnotic power over others, and remain untouched by the process.

  Aldous Huxley

  Art, Character, Exercise

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  Make sure you live life, which means don't do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society.

  Paul Newman

  Live Life, Mean, Giving

  "Newman remains animated at 81". Craig Modderno, Reuters, June 12, 2006.

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

  Elaine Dundy

  Acting, Actors, Contrary

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• Acting is a matter of giving away secrets.

  Ellen Barkin

  Art, Keeping Secrets, Giving

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• For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Funny, Success, Art

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• A man who strains himself on the stage is bound, if he is any good, to strain all the people sitting in the stalls.

  Bertolt Brecht

  Men, People, Acting

  Bertolt Brecht, John Willett (1964). “Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic”

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• Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.

  Rodney Dangerfield

  Acting, Doe, Actors

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