Acting Quotes

The kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you!

I don't need interesting camera angles, I am interesting.

Speaking of Oscars, I would win overwhelmingly if the Academy gave an Oscar for faking orgasms. I have done some of my best acting convincing my partners I was in the throes of ecstasy.

A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.

I thought I would dress in baggy pants, big shoes, a cane and a derby hat [...] Everything a contradiction: the pants baggy, the coat tight, the hat small and the shoes large.

I always try to do the unexpected in a novel way.

I'm an old sinner. Nothing shocks me.

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

I'm an old weed. The more I'm cut down, the more I spring up again.

The roses you lifted to your lips ... lucky roses!

I hate the sight of blood, but it's in my veins.

The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly!

I'm unconscious while I'm acting. I live the role and am not myself.

My costume helps me to express my conception of the average man, of almost any man, of myself. The derby, too small, is a striving for dignity. The mustache is vanity. The tightly buttoned coat and the stick and his whole manner are a gesture toward gallantry and dash and 'front.' He is chasing folly, and he knows it. He is trying to meet the world bravely, to put up a bluff, and he knows that, too. He knows it so well that he can laugh at himself and pity himself a little.

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

That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.

All I need is the opportunity,' I said confidently. He smiled. 'Seventeen's very young, and you look even younger.' I shrugged off-handedly. 'That's a question of make-up.' Karno laughed. That shrug, he told Sydney later, got me the job.

More than machinery, we need humanity.

We don't settle for anything less than excellence.