Famous Quotes about Acting and Actors (142 Quotations)

It's a business you go into because your an egocentric. It's a very embarrassing profession.

It's not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day: if you can't live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get out. I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.

Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

More than in any other performing arts the lack of respect for acting seems to spring from the fact that every layman considers himself a valid critic.

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

Oh! it offends me to the soul to hear a robust periwig-pated fellow, tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings.

One forgets too easily the difference between a man and his image, and that there is none between the sound of his voice on the screen and in real life.

People say I'm cocky, but am I supposed to sit here and be insecure and not know where my future's going or not realize that moviemaking is the greatest thing to happen to me?

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

Remember this practical piece of advice: Never come into the theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing — all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art — at the door.

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.

She represents the un-vowed aspiration of the male human being, his potential infidelity — and infidelity of a very special kind, which would lead him to the opposite of his wife, to the ''woman of wax'' whom he could model at will, make and unmake in any way he wished, even unto death.

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Show me a great actor and I'll show you a lousy husband. Show me a great actress, and you've seen the devil.

Some people are addicts. If they don't act, they don't exist.

Some scenes you juggle two balls, some scenes you juggle three balls, some scenes you can juggle five balls. The key is always to speak in your own voice. Speak the truth. That's Acting 101. Then you start putting layers on top of that. [On his acting techniques]

Somebody told me I should put a pebble in my mouth to cure my stuttering. Well, I tried it, and during a scene I swallowed the pebble. That was the end of that.

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you — tripping on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as Leif the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say, the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.

Stage charm guarantees in advance an actor's hold on the audience, it helps him to carry over to large numbers of people his creative purposes. It enhances his roles and his art. Yet it is of utmost importance that he use this precious gift with prudence, wisdom, and modesty. It is a great shame when he does not realize this and goes on to exploit, to play on his ability to charm.