Quote collection
39 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"One should hate very little, because it's extremely fatiguing. One should despise much, forgive often and never forget. Pardon does not bring with it forgetfulness; at least not for me."
"I refuse the title of artist to those who owe their reputations to a physical deformity. I regard them as buffoons."
"What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?"
"I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America."
"A defective voice will always preclude an artist from achieving the complete development of his art, however intelligent he may be.... The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it were a limb."
"The theatre is the involuntary reflex of the ideas of the crowd."
"I have often been asked why I am so fond of playing male parts. As a matter of fact, it is not male parts, but male brains that I prefer."
"The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions."
"Although all new ideas are born in France, they are not readily adopted there. It seems that they must first commence to prosper in a foreign country."
"I do love cricket - it's so very English."
"I have, thanks to my travels, added to my stock all the superstitions of other countries. I know them all now, and in any critical moment of my life, they all rise up in armed legions for or against me."
"The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear."
"What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art."
"Slow down? Rest? With all eternity before me?"
"Those who know the joys and miseries of celebrities when they have passed the age of forty know how to defend themselves."
"New ideas come into this world somewhat like falling meteors, with a flash and an explosion, and perhaps somebody's castle-roof perforated."
"Me pray? Never! I'm an atheist."
"... actors of the first water are not more plentiful than playwrights of genius."
"Each action of the actor on the stage should be the visible concomitant of his thoughts."