Acting quotes
3.9K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside acting — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Of course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false."
"Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam--he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts."
"We must begin by acknowledging a hard truth. We will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations, acting individually or in concert, will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified."
"If it seems like you're doing work when you're acting, then you're doing something wrong."
"You've got to know what you want. This is central to acting on your intentions. When you know what you want, you realize that all there is left then is time management. You'll manage your time to achieve your goals because you clearly know what you're trying to achieve in your life."
"It was always acting for me, since I was about 15. My middle brother always wanted to be a news anchor, so we always felt that he'd be the one to take over for dad, so we could go and do our thing."
"Each human being was given two possibilities: action and contemplation. Both lead to the same place."
"I am only an actress when they say, 'action' and I stop being an actress when they say, 'cut'. I am a normal person outside of acting."
"We must be able to inspire. That's my goal in acting."
"I love to work. I really enjoy getting up really early and driving downtown. I just really love the process of acting and being on a series."
"Acting can be a narrow and isolated experience, because you only examine your particular part."
"There are ways of avoiding becoming tabloid fodder and therefore giving people license to pry into your private life. And there's a distinction between being an actor and being a celebrity. You may become a celebrity through acting, but you don't need to do so."
"I kind of shy away from that idea of being an actress because it seems to me to be such a cliché. Also, if you want to be a serious actress, then it's quite difficult to make that transition without being the blond bimbo in the opening credits. Maybe I'm being idealistic about acting and the idea that they would hire people purely based on their talent and not on their looks. But I don't know if I would be a very talented actress anyway."
"I knew how to act and had studied acting and enjoyed it, but I'd never pushed myself to really perform as an actor, and create a role, and have the whole character's backstory."
"Acting is fun. It's not my whole life. It's not my entire being. It's secondary to my life. My life is primary. I'm running in the primary, as you know."
"I like Brando's acting ... and James Dean ... and Richard Widmark. Quite a few of 'em I like."
"Singers come and go, but if you're a good actor, you can last a long time."
"I've been acting since I was a kid, so I just feel confident in the fact that I can do it to some degree. I've never thought I was amazing; I've just thought, 'I know this, I can do it."
"I went from being totally unknown and never acting professionally to being in a major movie and being very famous. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have any time to work things out. It's been pretty scary at times."
"I think when you take away all, like, the premieres and press stuff and all the special effects, then you just come down to the fact that it's all about acting, and I think that has been the best bit for me."
