quotations about actors
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
Playbill, 1965
For an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
ETHEL BARRYMORE
attributed, The Theatre in the Fifties
In Hollywood the man who cleans your pool is an actor. The man who sells you your copy of Variety is an actor. I don't think there's a real person left in the place.
NEIL GAIMAN
Signal to Noise
If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.
ELIJAH WOOD
attributed, Quotes about Acting and Actors
There are two kinds of actors -- one sits in a dressing room waiting for his call and the other gets out into the business and polishes his craft by absorbing everything. I don't know enough, I'll never learn everything I need to learn. When a guy thinks he's already learned it, he can only go backwards.
CLINT EASTWOOD
Clint Eastwood: Interviews
Actors are one family over the entire world.
ALFRE WOODARD
attributed, Quotes about Acting and Actors
Of course, if you have thought up to now that an actor relies merely on inspiration you will have to change your mind. Talent without work is nothing more than raw unfinished material.
KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKY
An Actor Prepares
I believe that God felt sorry for actors so he created Hollywood to give them a place in the sun and a swimming pool. The price they had to pay was to surrender their talent.
SIR CEDRIC HARDWICKE
A Victorian in Orbit
An actor is a man with an infinite capacity for taking praise.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
A ham is simply any actor who has not been successful in repressing his natural instincts.
GEORGE JEAN NATHAN
The American Mercury, 1942
The author writes a play, then is through with it, aside from collecting royalties. Four weeks of rehearsing and the director's work is done. Theirs are creative jobs. But how would the author feel if he had to write the same play over each night for a year? Or the director to restage it before each performance? They'd be as balmy as Nijinsky in a week. Even the ushers traffic with different people every night. But the actress? She's a caged parrot.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD
Tallulah: My Autobiography
An actor should refine public taste.
ARISTOPHANES
attributed, Day's Collacon
He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.
SARAH BERNHARDT
The Art of the Theatre
Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.
KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKY
Selected Works
Many an actor does the stage more ham than good.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
There are always going to be more actors than anybody can ever use.
EDWARD ALBEE
WNBC TV interview, Jan. 9, 1966
In the performer's body, you don't care how you look. It doesn't matter if you're old, fat, beautiful, or ugly. It doesn't change anything. The only thing is your charisma and how you express your idea.
MARINA ABRAMOVIC
"Once Upon a Time", Harper's Bazaar, Feb. 7, 2012
The actor is an athlete of the heart.
ANTONIN ARTAUD
The Theatre and Its Double
I call for actors burning at the stakes, laughing at the flames.
ANTONIN ARTAUD
The Theater and Its Double
We're actors -- we're the opposite of people.
TOM STOPPARD
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead