Actors quotes
5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside actors — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"I have a theory. An audience doesn't need to get wrapped up in blackness every time they see a Negro actor. And a movie doesn't have to be about race just because there's a Negro in it."
"An actor needs to be not remotely anywhere close to in control, and a filmmaker has to be totally in control."
"For the actor, The Lee Strasberg Notes are an indispensable companion."
"What is it in the actor, the stage, that casts so powerful a spell on the young imagination?"
"I was a terrible actor, and that's why I got the job: I would allow myself to be so bad that I lowered and got down to WWF standards."
"The moral of filmmaking in Britain is that you will be screwed by the weather."
"I think when your image becomes so big that it's hard for a viewer to see a character, then I think you're in danger as an actor of being unable to perform what you should be doing."
"The thing about being an actor is that you're in the business of not growing up"
"Americans just don't know what being a movie star's all about."
"As an actor, you're a color of paint on someone else's palette. But as a director, it's your canvas and you make the painting you want to make."
"That's what I tell young actors. "You don't have to compromise. Go do some theater and wait for an appropriate role.""
"I want you to understand the words. I want you taste the words. I want you to love the words. Because the words are important. But they're only words. You leave them on the paper and you take the thoughts and put them into your mind and then you as an actor recreate them, as if the thoughts had suddenly occurred to you."
"I've often said there's two kinds of actors. There's a more gregarious type and the shy type."
"When my mother got home from work, she would take me to the movies. It was her way of getting out, and she would take me with her. I'd go home and act all the parts. It had a tremendous influence on my becoming an actor."
"Once asked if he felt wearied by the constant onslaught of autograph seekers, actor Gregory Peck replied that he would be more worried when they stopped asking."
"The real actor - like any real artistj- has a direct line to the collective heart."
"It's not a pleasure torturing actors, although some of them enjoy it."
"Thinking back to those earlier days, I felt I was weak when I wasn't making movies, and then when I was, I thought I was weak as a family member."
"I've seen some of my favorite actors give bad performances, and I have to tell myself that failure is a part of success."
"It occurs to me that with all the television people watch, most of their acquaintances are actors."
