Quotes about acting and actors

"You are not in business to be popular."

Alley, Kirstie on acting and actors   

"We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to."

Amiel, Henri Frederic on acting and actors   

"The actors today really need the whip hand. They're so lazy. They haven't got the sense of pride in their profession that the less socially elevated musical comedy and music hall people or acrobats have. The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen."

Auden, W. H. on acting and actors   

"I don't get acting jobs because of my looks."

Baldwin, Alec on acting and actors   

"Acting is a matter of giving away secrets."

Barkin, Ellen on acting and actors   

"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."

Barrymore, Ethel on acting and actors   

"The face of Garbo is an Idea, that of Hepburn an Event."

Barthes, Roland on acting and actors   

"For the theatre one needs long arms; it is better to have them too long than too short. An artiste with short arms can never, never make a fine gesture."

Bernhardt, Sarah on acting and actors   

"To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication."

Brando, Marlon on acting and actors   

"Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis."

Brando, Marlon on acting and actors   

"The hardest part has been maintaining a small head -- remaining down to earth. So many people try to make you more than you are. This business has changed a lot of good people and a lot of good families, and I don't want that to happen to me."

Brandy on acting and actors   

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

Brecht, Bertolt on acting and actors   

"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."

Bresson, Robert on acting and actors   

"The actor searches vainly for the sound of a vanished tradition, and critic and audience follow suit. We have lost all sense of ritual and ceremony -- whether it be connected with Christmas, birthdays or funerals -- but the words remain with us and old impulses stir in the marrow. We feel we should have rituals, we should do something about getting them and we blame the artists for not finding them for us. So the artist sometimes attempts to find new rituals with only his imagination as his source: he imitates the outer form of ceremonies, pagan or baroque, unfortunately adding his own trapping -- the result is rarely convincing. And after the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage. It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good."

Brook, Peter (Stephen Paul) on acting and actors   

"From '86 until the summer of last year, wherever I went, people would say, You would have made a great James Bond! Weren't you going to be James Bond? You should have been, you could have been, you may have been. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. It was like unfinished business in my life. I couldn't say no to it this time around."

Brosnan, Pierce on acting and actors   

"When I was a fireman I was in a lot of burning buildings. It was a great job, the only job I ever had that compares with the thrill of acting. Before going into a fire, there's the same surge of adrenaline you get just before the camera rolls."

Buscemi, Steve on acting and actors   

"I am acquainted with no immaterial sensuality so delightful as good acting."

Byron, Lord on acting and actors   

"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."

Caine, Michael on acting and actors   

"Such is an actor's life. We must ride the waves of every film, barfing occasionally, yet maintain our dignity, even as the bulk of our Herculean efforts are keel-hauled before our very eyes. [On filming MacHale's Navy]"

Campbell, Bruce on acting and actors   

"The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history."

Campbell, Thomas on acting and actors   

"Until Ace Ventura, no actor had considered talking through his ass."

Carrey, Jim on acting and actors   

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

Cervantes, Miguel De on acting and actors   

"The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting."

Chaplin, Charlie on acting and actors   

"Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves."

Chase, Chevy on acting and actors   

"When an actor has money, he doesn't send letters, but telegrams."

Chekhov, Anton on acting and actors   

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"An actor is only merchandise."

Chow Yun-Fat on acting and actors   

"I really think that effective acting has to do literally with the movement of molecules."

Close, Glenn on acting and actors   

"To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning."

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor on acting and actors   

"Celebrity is death --- celebrity -- that's the worst thing that can happen to an actor."

Cusack, John on acting and actors   

"I am the Fred Astaire of karate."

Damme, Jean-Claude Van on acting and actors   

"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."

Davies, Marion on acting and actors   

"You name it and I've done it. I'd like to say I did it my way. But that line, I'm afraid, belongs to someone else."

Davis Jr., Sammy on acting and actors
3 fans of this quote   

"The real actor has a direct line to the collective heart."

Davis, Bette on acting and actors   

"I have often seen an actor laugh off the stage, but I don't remember ever having seen one weep."

Diderot, Denis on acting and actors   

"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]"

D'Onofrio, Vincent on acting and actors   

"I'd prefer not to be the pretty thing in a film. It's such a bloody responsibility to look cute, because people know when you don't and they're like, They're trying to pass her off as the cute girl and she's looking like a bedraggled sack of potatoes."

Driver, Minnie on acting and actors   

"I find myself fascinating."

Dreyfus, Richard on acting and actors   

"I mean, the question actors most often get asked is how they can bear saying the same things over and over again, night after night, but God knows the answer to that is, don't we all anyway; might as well get paid for it."

Dundy, Elaine on acting and actors   

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

Duras, Marguerite on acting and 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."

Duras, Marguerite on acting and actors