Acting Quotes

The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Also, with acting and dancing I portray a predetermined character and story for the most part, with music I have the creative freedom to create a song on a whim with whomever I choose and at whatever time I choose to do it. It's more liberating artistically and that's why I've stuck with it. It's a good balance to be able to portray a character and also be myself in avenues that I'm passionate about. ~ Alyson Stoner

That's one of the great things about acting - you get to pretend you're somebody else, which is great if you get bored with yourself. ~ Michael Shannon

Ego is something that you come to know - something that you befriend by not acting out or by repressing all the feelings that you feel. ~ Pema Chodron

The ultimate purpose of Zen,' I remembered the roshi telling me, 'is not in the going away from the world but in the coming back. Zen is not just a matter of gaining enlightenment; it's a matter of acting in a world of love and compassion. ~ Pico Iyer

My favorite thing about acting is that I can play all kinds of different people. Frankly, I don't consider myself a very interesting person, so the characters I play are usually much more fun. ~ Nathan Kress

Whoever, to whatever purpose or extent, initiates the use of force, is a killer acting on the premise of death in a manner wider than murder: the premise of destroying man's capacity to live. ~ Ayn Rand

I did some acting in college. But then everything stopped when I was a junior, in the fall of 2001, when I started becoming religious. Once I became a full-on Hasidic, I stopped everything. I stopped music. I stopped acting. ~ Matisyahu

I began auditioning for acting jobs at the ripe old age of 12. Thirty years later, including a 15-year run on television, I sometimes just get offers for work. Often, however, I am still required to run pell-mell around Los Angeles or New York, interviewing for film and TV jobs. ~ Diane Farr

Moral virtue is the quality of acting in the best way in relation to pleasures and pains, and that vice is the opposite. ~ Aristotle.

Tom's Cabin, and she spent many hours acting out ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

What motivates every other decision artistically or technically is the acting. This is what motivates everything. Never can a camera move be incompatible with the emotion of the actor at that moment. The movement, the style, the atmosphere, everything is dictated by the actor. ~ Xavier Dolan

Harvey tried to come up behind me, but I stepped back towards the couch, so I could face him. They were trying to circle like sharks. Phillip was staring at me, hard. Right; I was supposed to be enjoying myself, not acting like they all had communicable diseases. Which ~ Laurell K. Hamilton

I did some theater as a kid for fun. But it was really by chance that I landed into acting. ~ Gaspard Ulliel

There's a boy who they call Pony! He's always acting gross and horny! He thinks he's got a lot down there, but he sure wears tiny underwear! ~ Cecily Von Ziegesar

Two things are always happening in acting. On the one hand, it's a team sport. We're all pulling together. But on the other, you have to look after your own character. Guard their interests. ~ Domhnall Gleeson

I'm trying to get an acting gig on 'CSI' or something like that, so we'll see how that works out. I'm a singer, definitely not an actor, so I just follow directions. ~ Jason Aldean

Other animals are exceptionally good at identifying and reacting to predators, rivals and friends. They never act as if they believe that rivers or trees are inhabited by spirits who are watching. In all these ways, other animals continually demonstrate their working knowledge that they live in a world brimming with other minds as well as their knowledge of those minds' boundaries. their understanding seems more acute, pragmatic, and frankly, better than ours at distinguishing real from fake. So, I wonder, do humans really have a better developed Theory of Mind than other animals? ...Children talk to dolls for years, half believing or firmly believing that the doll hears and feels and is a worthy confidante. Many adults pray to statues, fervently believing that they're listening. ...All of this indicates a common human inability to distinguish conscious minds from inanimate objects, and evidence from nonsense. Children often talk to a fully imaginary friends whom they believe listens and has thoughts. Monotheism might be the adult version. ...In the world's most technologically advanced, most informed societies, a majority people take it for granted that disembodied spirits are watching, judging, and acting on them. Most leaders of modern nations trust that a Sky-God can be asked to protect their nation during disasters and conflicts with other nations. All of this is theory of mind gone wild, like an unguided fire hose spraying the whole universe with presumed consciousness. ~ Carl Safina

Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy. ~ Clive Swift

I've dealt with a few method actors, and I don't know if should say this, but I think it's a bunch of nonsense. I think it's film acting and you just have to be on when the camera is rolling. ~ Natalie Portman

I was always explaining why my term papers were never on time. I think that's where I got my acting training! ~ Greg Kinnear

If I spent all my time criticising myself, I wouldn't be able to function. There are actors who theorise till the cows come home. I haven't the patience for them. It's maybe shallow, but that's why I'll never be part of the acting set. ~ Anthony Hopkins

It wasn't like a Maths test where I have to strain to get it right. I feel very close to Luna so acting her was just natural. And if I had got too nervous I'd have done terribly. ~ Evanna Lynch

Ricardo Montalban is to improvisational acting what Mount Rushmore is to animation. ~ John Cassavetes

I don't come to work as an actor. There are many directors who can direct without ever having acted and do a great job and connect with their actors and lead them to excellent performances without themselves having had an acting background. ~ Abdellatif Kechiche

Republicans won big, running as Republicans, in 2004. But once they took control of Congress, they started acting like Democrats and lost big. There is a lesson in that somewhere but
whether Republicans will learn it is another story entirely. ~ Thomas Sowell

I've been acting professionally since I was 15 years old, and after a while, you get really tired of people telling you one thing and then doing another. ~ Liz Vassey

I've spent a part of my life focused on acting, so if there was an opportunity that I'm right for and I feel confident, I would definitely go for it. ~ Jessie Pavelka

I don't like acting; not in front of the camera. ~ Spike Lee

It was a wonderful life. To have a stage play right in this room, with real people acting real parts. ~ Jan Karon

In these our cowardly times, we deny the grandeur of the Universal, and assert and glorify our local Bigotries, and so we cannot agree on much. In these our degenerate times, men bent on nothing but vainglory and personal gain- hollow, bombastic men for whom nothing is off-limits if it advances their petty cause- will claim to be great leaders and benefactors, acting in the common good, and calling all who oppose them liars, envious, little people, stupid people, stiff, and, in a precise reversal of the truth, dishonest and corrupt. ~ Salman Rushdie

In acting class, you talked always about keeping it real and don't act ... connect with the people and connect with the partner that you're acting with. The same is also true in politics. ~ Arnold Schwarzenegger

I love acting. I love performing. ~ Isaiah Mustafa

Love is an element which though physically unseen is as real as air or water. It is an acting, living, moving force ... it moves in waves and currents like those of the ocean. ~ Prentice Mulford

Be truthful, say what you mean and mean what you say, don't ignore the given circumstances. ~ Lauren Graham

I decided at age 5 to start acting and I have never wanted to do anything else. ~ Lois Robbins

My mom kind of led me toward acting. She wanted to be an actress when she was younger. That made me interested in it when I was a kid, because she and I are very close. ~ Stephen Colbert

Anything that loosens you up and makes you freer is good, because that's what acting and performing is all about - being free. It gives you a better connection to the audience. ~ Brett Somers

Something I learned in the Marine Corps that I've applied to acting is, one, taking direction, and then working with a group of people to accomplish a mission and knowing your role within that team. ~ Adam Driver

'I went to one acting coach when I first started who told me that acting is reacting to the stimuli we are presented with. Does that make sense?' John nodded. 'But really, that's life now, isn't it? Because we are not a product of where we came from or what was done to us. We are what we choose to be in every situation that God delivers. And that's why when a thing of beauty enters my life, I rise to the occasion with everything I have. Some people are humbled by beautiful things, John. I'm not. I'm inspired. I go after them with everything I have. Everything.' ~ Christopher Rice

I just happened to step into acting. And now I can't imagine myself doing anything else. ~ Dylan O'Brien

The beautiful thing about it is that no two directors or actors work the same way. You also learn not to be afraid of discussion and conflict. ~ Ewan McGregor

As a director, I also get to sit and watch actors and learn from them in a way that I don't get to do when I'm just acting. ~ Stanley Tucci

I have never reached certain levels of fame, like Lindsay Lohan did, or even Brittany Murphy. My career has always been this sort of even-keeled, steady existence. I was also raised by poets, and I've been doing poetry as long as I've been acting. ~ Amber Tamblyn

I think people are always really surprised when they realise I'm not a very serious person and that I'm not tremendously serious about acting. I don't like to rehearse; I hate improv. Directors that don't like to talk, they're my favourite ones. ~ Julianne Moore

Perhaps I've been perceived more as a romantic comedy actor, but overall, I enjoy acting in any shape or form. ~ Jaime Camil

Only when I dropped the notion that I was the creator of my own peace or oneness, or that I was powerful enough to change the world by acting to change others did I experience the way of tenderness. ~ Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

I will always be an actress. I couldn't see myself without acting. But I'd love to direct and keep writing. I don't think one has to be in place of the other. ~ Kate Del Castillo

My parents never pressured me except to advise me against acting. ~ Emilia Fox

Acting for me is not that quid pro quo. ~ Tom Wilkinson

You can have great sequences with music, but if you don't have the acting you're bored after 15 minutes. Or not bored, but you're like, 'So what?' ~ Danny Boyle

I started working on stage as a dancer when I was four; by 14 or 15, I knew I wanted to study the craft of acting. ~ Cush Jumbo

I knew it, but I knew you didn't know I knew it, so I knew to not let you know I knew it by acting like I didn't know it. ~ Jarod Kintz

Religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world. ~ Pope Francis

Acting like an adult and being professional on set and getting my work done has just been a lifestyle for me. It's not something I have to try hard to do, necessarily. ~ Colin Ford

Usually in a battle sequence when a bomb is going off, you forget you're acting. ~ Charlie Sheen

The light was crude. It made Artaud's eyes shrink into darkness, as they are deep-set. This brought into relief the intensity of his gestures. He looked tormented. His hair, rather long, fell at times over his forehead. He has the actor's nimbleness and quickness of gestures. His face is lean, as if ravaged by fevers. His eyes do not seem to see the people. They are the eyes of a visionary. His hands are long, long-fingered.
Beside him Allendy looks earthy, heavy, gray. He sits at the desk, massive, brooding. Artaud steps out on the platform, and begins to talk about " The Theatre and the Plague."
He asked me to sit in the front row. It seems to me that all he is asking for is intensity, a more heightened form of feeling and living. Is he trying to remind us that it was during the Plague that so many marvelous works of art and theater came to be, because, whipped by the fear of death, man seeks immortality, or to escape, or to surpass himself? But then, imperceptibly almost, he let go of the thread we were following and began to act out dying by plague. No one quite knew when it began. To illustrate his conference, he was acting out an agony. "La Peste" in French is so much more terrible than "The Plague" in English. But no word could describe what Artaud acted out on the platform of the Sorbonne. He forgot about his conference, the theatre, his ideas, Dr. Allendy sitting there, the public, the young students, his wife, professors, and directors.
His face was ~ Anais Nin

With acting, I always feel conscious of what I'm doing. ~ Flea

Acting is not glamorous. It's not. Anybody who wants to get into acting for the glamour is in for a hard time. ~ Emmanuelle Chriqui

My mom thought I might be good for voiceover. She thought I had a cute voice, so maybe I could do a cartoon or something. And while we were looking into that, we also thought I should get into theater acting, so I tried it and the first audition I went on, I booked it. And it kind of just snowballed from there. ~ Atticus Shaffer

There's a large chunk of me in all the parts. As an actor, I got involved largely because I want to let things out. The best acting is that that is most real and the only way to do that, is to genuinely feel it. ~ James Franco

People nowadays talk about issues as if they're reading lines off a teleprompter. They recite what they read and echo it without thinking. It has become easier to divide people than to unify them, and to blind them than to give them vision. We are no longer unified like a bowl of Cheerios. Instead, we have become as segregated as a box of Lucky Charms. Every day we see the same leprechauns on TV acting like they're the experts of everything. ~ Suzy Kassem

I love the simplicity of Kevin Spacey's work. He really does a subtle interpretation of every character, and that's kind of my style of acting when it comes to dramatic roles. ~ Devon Bostick

Acting is great. It's so much fun. It's a job where you literally get to do something that's a great experience, and then you try a new experience, and you take things from all of it. ~ James Wolk

Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting. ~ Woodrow Wilson

Does the engineer ever predict the acceleration of a given body from a knowledge of its mass and of the forces acting upon it? Of course. Does the chemist ever measure the mass of an atom by measuring its acceleration in a given field of force? Yes. Does the physicist ever determine the strength of a field by measuring the acceleration of a known mass in that field? Certainly. Why then, should any one of these roles be singled out as the role of Newton's second law of motion? The fact is that it has a variety of roles. ~ Brian Ellis

You know, I love acting. ~ Anne Archer

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters. ~ Alexia Fast

Any act of hatred or violence to anyone on this planet is an act of hatred to everyone. To destroy other innocent lives because they act or feel different, believe different ideologies or religions, speak a different tongue or are a different color is a abomination and crime against humanity. The world is diverse ... it always will be. Diversity is what makes us human. It's time to stop acting like 1st century barbarians destroying everything we believe is wrong and for the sake of humanity ... put all our differences to bed and try to get along. ~ Timothy Pina

Somebody told me long ago that in acting, it's okay to steal, just steal from the best. ~ Nathan Fillion

I suddenly thought back to a time when I was crying on the playground in first grade. We'd all been working on an art project and I was put on a team with Chelsea, her neighbor Erica, and a girl named Mary Jo Myers. We were all supposed to work together, but the three of them cut me out completely, acting like I wasn't even there. If I spoke, they ignored me. If I tried to do something, they pulled it out of my reach. I was in tears by the time we broke for recess, sure nobody in the world liked me. ~ Stephanie Faris

I drifted into acting and drifted out. Acting is not everything. Living is. ~ Irene Dunne

Yeah, acting is very difficult. As much as I love it, and the challenge of it, I'm so often just terrified by it. ~ Kate Winslet

This feels natural, Kit and I acting on something that was already there. My eyes roll back in my head as he slides inside of me. And then I wake up. ~ Tarryn Fisher

With voice acting it just matters what your voice can do. There are some things that I won't get over other people because my register isn't as deep as other people. So if someone wants a deep, dark, brooding villain voice then they are probably not going to pick me. ~ Ashly Burch

I remember being cast in the first "Harry Potter" film and being quite amused, because I was imagining that someone who'd been acting since they'd been crawling would be cast. The faith and trust that they'd put into everyone actually enabled you to gain confidence back, in the sense of feeling that sense of achievement, which is incredibly hard when you're young. ~ Bonnie Wright

Honor was a luxury item, like hair pomade and snuff. Its only purpose was to show the world that you could afford to be impractical, that you had enough money to behave in a way that was compatible with some ludicrous code instead of acting out of self-preservation like the rest of humanity. ~ Cat Sebastian

I went to Brunel University and very much wanted to go on to do a PhD in management, but then my acting career started to take off. In those days when you switched on the box there were hardly any brown or black faces. ~ Archie Panjabi

When I began doing theatre in high school I saw that I could get laughs from people but I didn't really connect that to going on and becoming a comedian. I was interested in acting and while I was at Boston College I was part of an improv group, Mother's Fleabag, which had a long history and has been known as one of the best college improvisation groups in the U.S. ~ Amy Poehler

If it's an excellent script, I enjoy it tremendously, the acting part of it. ~ Julie London

I'd found my niche: cat-owning, stalker-y secretary. And I played the same part again and again and again. ~ Felicia Day

I really started dreaming ... and broke out of my shyness when I got to Howard University. My first acting class was an Intro to Acting class with Professor Bay, who really broke me out of my shell, encouraged me to follow my dreams and make them a reality. ~ Lance Gross

I was never nervous directing. Not once. I'm more nervous acting. I'm far more nervous on set, before I say my lines, than I ever have been, as a director. ~ Rose McGowan

Events. Events in response to other events. Think about it. Nothing since the big bang has happened without a reason. And even the big bang might have come from something, because of something. One thing makes another thing, and then that thing makes the next thing. Look at these kids. These two brothers, still kids. They don't know themselves yet. They are acting in response, in reaction, passionate reaction to something that set them off, made them commit to violence. They would not be here if the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. The United States would not have had fertile ground for the lie it told about Irag, weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein, etc., etc., if not for Osama bin Laden and 9/11. Osama bin Laden would not have been able to recruit those men to learn how to fly planes and then crash them into buildings if not for propaganda about the persecution of the global Muslims, Afghanistan after the Russian invasion, Chechnya in the nineties, Bosnian genocides, or any instance of Islam under attack by the West, one culture trying to extinguish another. History is always a story of cause and effect. ~ Laleh Khadivi

Acting and modelling are good, but motherhood is what it's all about. ~ Jerry Hall

There's definitely a lot of trash that comes with the prize of being famous. It's a nice gift, but there's a lot of wrapping and paper and junk to cut through. Back then, when a movie came out and people saw you on the street, their reaction was so supercharged that it was scary. It would frighten other people. It used to really rattle me. I mean, everybody would love to have their clothes torn off by a mob of girls, but being screamed at is different. ~ Bill Murray

Method acting has had a major influence both in writing through the eyes of other people, and seeing through the eyes of other people, trying to address different ideas in a way that would go beyond preaching to the choir. ~ Jello Biafra

Music and acting kind of all goes together. ~ Drake Bell

It's not that acting was something I'd always wanted to do. I had no formal training; I'd never really imagined I'd be an actress. Business was something that had always been in my mind, but when I got into acting, I learned everything on set, and for me at that point, I wanted to excel at what I did. ~ Preity Zinta

Being pigeonholed is the death of all actors. ~ Jack Nicholson

The Greeks' Christian successors rejected the idea that the universe is governed by indifferent natural law. They also rejected the idea that humans do not hold a privileged place within that universe. And though the medieval period had no single coherent philosophical system, a common theme was that the universe is God's dollhouse, and religion a far worthier study than the phenomena of nature. Indeed, in 1277 Bishop Tempier of Paris, acting on the instructions of Pope John XXI, published a list of 219 errors or heresies that were to be condemned. Among the heresies was the idea that nature follows laws, because this conflicts with God's omnipotence. Interestingly, Pope John was killed by the effects of the law of gravity a few months later when the roof of his palace fell in on him. ~ Stephen Hawking

People might think writing is a hard business, but it's nowhere near acting. ~ Kate Morton

I think people involved in politics make good actors. Acting and politics both involve fooling people. People like being fooled by actors. When you get right down to it, they probably like being fooled by politicians even more. A skillful actor will make you think, but a skillful politician will make you never have to think. ~ Donna Brazile

What I like is the acting itself. But I'm a lousy celebrity. I'm not interested in selling my private life. I take my private feelings to the work, but I want there to be a difference between me and whoever it is I'm playing. ~ Tyne Daly

It took me forever, learning improvisation, because I had studied with Lee Strasberg - I dropped out of Chicago and went to his classes in New York for a couple of years, once or twice a week. What I didn't realize was I was learning directing because he wasn't all that good about acting, not for me. ~ Mike Nichols

Golf is like acting in that both require concentration and relaxation at the same time. In acting, you can't push emotion. You have to let it rise from you naturally. Same thing in golf. You have to have a plan and a focus; but then you need to just let it happen and enjoy the smooth movement of the swing. ~ Jane Seymour

Actions are interesting to watch. I learn about the actors. Their movements are emblems of the tensions in this internal landscape, which their actions resolve. About-to-act is an interesting state to experience, because I am conscious of just those tensions. Acting itself feels fairly dull; it not only resolves, it obliterates those tensions from my consciousness. Acting is only interesting as it leads to new tensions that, irrelevantly, cause me to act again. ~ Samuel R. Delany

I suddenly became aware over the last couple of years that I'm in my sixties. I never thought about it. I thought I'd better start acting my age or find roles that are going to be interesting to me in the sexagenarian repertoire, because it's not what you do in your forties or fifties. ~ Geoffrey Rush

I love the stage, I love the process of acting in theatre, but unfortunately, it doesn't pay the bills. ~ Kabir Bedi

Action and becoming are one. ~ Meister Eckhart