4 Quotes by Donald Spoto

Avoid theatrical flourishes – the phrases that sound so damned good that they stand up and beg to be recognized as “good writing,” and therefore must be struck from the text.

Less is more” was one of Meisner’s mantras. “Silence has myriad meanings. In the theater, silence is an absence of words, but never an absence of meaning.” Most of all, Meisner urged his students to think of acting a role as “living truthfully under given imaginary circumstances.

But there is probably nothing in the world as determined as a child with a dream.

From his earliest years, Alfred Hitchcock was a loner and a watcher, an observer rather than a participant. “I don’t remember ever having a playmate,” he recalled as an adult. At family gatherings: “I would sit quietly in a corner, saying nothing. I looked and observed a great deal. I’ve always been that way and still am. I was anything but expansive. I was a loner – can’t even remember having had a playmate. I played by myself, inventing my own games.