Phrases

01. Acting is not a competition, it is a relaxation

02. I am too much of an individualist to really fit comfortably into a socialist society

03. Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself

04. I suppose I’m the world’s oldest young man. I’m very immature but very well preserved

05. Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn

06. I can never act as myself, I have to have a pillow up my jumper, a false nose or a moustache or wig… I cannot come on looking like me and be someone else

07. Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement

08. The only way to enjoy anything in this life is to earn it first

09. Only a great actor can turn god into a theatrical director

10. Be your own palace, or the world is your jail

11. I never go to the theatre, because I can sleep at home for nothing

12. There are several paths to success; we must search for the clearest and the bravest

13. You are as good as the company you keep

14. Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life

15. I believe that good things come to those who work

16. The public doesn’t particularly care for safe playing

17. I don’t know what is better than the work that is given to the actor—to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself

18. We must overcome the notion that we must be regular. It robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre

19. The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people to whom one would show the door if they came to one’s office for a job

20. One does not act morally because it will make one happy, but because it’s right

21. To be able to pretend to be something that I’m frankly not is very liberating and exciting

22. I sometimes wonder if the inability to find oneself makes one seek oneself in other people, in characters

23. I should say sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic

24. Loneliness is the first thing which God’s eye named, not good

25. We actors are like children; we need encouragement, we need applause

26. The mirror will always look you straight in the eye

27. Biography should be written by an acute enemy

28. It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it

29. A sure way to lose happiness, I found, is to want it at the expense of everything else

30. Monarchs ought to put to death the authors and instigators of war, as their sworn enemies and as dangers to their states

31. I have no interest whatever in celebrities. I am a completely normal and sensible chap who just happens to be an actor

32. You are a member of the British royal family. We are never tired, and we all love hospitals

33. A man and his judgment are no better than his information

34. Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there

35. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it

36. One should have a heart, but a heart of iron

37. It is essential to do everything at the right time

38. The theatre should be an instrument for giving, not a machinery for getting

39. I have often regretted my speech, never my silence

40. To be successful, one must be either daft or clever

41. Wisdom comes from within. Knowledge is acquired and can sometimes put a screen between you and wisdom

42. Time and I have a quarrel; it wants to go so fast and I want to go so slow

43. Life is always going to be stranger than fiction, because fiction has to be convincing, and life doesn’t

44. I always say that you should remake flops, not successes

45. You know, it’s very easy to be a great man by saying what you believe. But it’s much more difficult to live up to it

46. I love acting. It is so much more real than life

47. In acting, the first rule is honesty; if you can fake that, you’ve got it made

48. You should show all your workings in the margins

49. To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it is his dedication

50. If you really want to help the American theater, don’t be an actress, be an audience