1,862 Quotes About Acting

Acting requires a creative and compassionate attitude. It must aim to lift life up to a higher level of meaning and not tear it down or demean it. The actor's search is a generous quest for that larger meaning. That's why acting is never to be done passively.

All the characters ever written are already inside you. It's just a matter of accessing them and bringing them forward. And having no fear of the dark side.

The actor must be full of passion. If he's too cool he's better off as the manager of a company, not someone who appears on the stage.

Acting can be the healthiest profession in the world, because it allows you to do things you can't do in real life. It allows you to understand more than just what life provides you.

If you can't take both sides, it means you can only play yourself.

An actor is just a part of a movie, but director - he is the movie.

Literature, although it stands apart by reason of the great destiny and general use of its medium in the affairs of men, is yet an art like other arts. Of these we may distinguish two great classes: those arts, like sculpture, painting, acting, which are representative, or as used to be said very clumsily, imitative; and those, like architecture, music, and the dance, which are self-sufficient, and merely presentative.

We dress the way we think.

By taking elements you observe in life, you can develop qualities in your acting life that you don't ordinarily call upon in your personal life.