If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) (1915–77) American Columnist, Author
I’m an assistant storyteller. It’s like being a waiter or a gas-station attendant, but I’m waiting on six million people a week, if I’m lucky.
—Harrison Ford (b.1942) American Actor
I don’t want to read about some of these actresses who are around today. They sound like my niece in Scarsdale. I love my niece in Scarsdale, but I won’t buy tickets to see her act.
—Vincent Price (1911–93) American Film Actor
I am acquainted with no immaterial sensuality so delightful as good acting.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
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.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
In civilized life, where the happiness and indeed almost the existence of man, depends on the opinion of his fellow men. He is constantly acting a studied part.
—Washington Irving (1783–1859) American Essayist, Biographer, Historian
The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.
—Constantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
If a person were to try stripping the disguises from actors while they play a scene upon stage, showing to the audience their real looks and the faces they were born with, would not such a one spoil the whole play ? And would not the spectators think he deserved to be driven out of the theatre with brickbats, as a drunken disturber ?.. Now what else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage ? Moreover, this manager frequently bids the same actor to go back in a different costume, so that he who has but lately played the king in scarlet now acts the flunkey in patched clothes. Thus all things are presented by shadows.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
A young girl must not be taken to the theatre, let us say it once for all. It is not only the drama which is immoral, but the place.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
Actors are the only honest hypocrites. Their life is a voluntary dream; and the height of their ambition is to be beside themselves. They wear the livery of other men’s fortunes: their very thoughts are not their own.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
The profession of the player, like that of the painter, is one of the imitative arts, whose means are pleasure, and whose end should be virtue.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer.
—Marlon Brando (1924–2004) American Film, Stage Actor
Show me a great actor and I’ll show you a lousy husband. Show me a great actress, and you’ve seen the devil.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
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.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
The actor is an athlete of the heart.
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French Actor, Drama Theorist
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.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.
—Constantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
Ah just act the way ah feel.
—Elvis Presley (1935–77) American Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Actor
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.
—Jeanne Moreau (1928–2017) French Stage, Screen Actor, Singer
To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.
—Marlon Brando (1924–2004) American Film, Stage Actor
Some people are addicts. If they don’t act, they don’t exist.
—Jeanne Moreau (1928–2017) French Stage, Screen Actor, Singer
When [actors] are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.
—Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964) English Stage, Film Actor
An actor should take lessons from the painter and the sculptor. Not only should he make attitude his study, but he should highly develop his mind by an assiduous study of the best writers, ancient and modern, which will enable him not only to understand his parts, but to communicate a nobler coloring to his manners and mien.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
When an actor has money, he doesn’t send letters, but telegrams.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
Acting is a question of absorbing other people’s personalities and adding some of your own experience.
—Paul Newman (1925–2008) American Actor, Philanthropist
Acting doesn’t bring anything to a text. On the contrary, it detracts from it.
—Marguerite Duras (1914–96) French Novelist, Playwright
It’s a business you go into because you’re an egocentric. It’s a very embarrassing profession.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality