"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one."
Read quote
102 likes
Quote collection
Stella Adler quotes (page 1 of 3)
51 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"The actor has to develop his body. The actor has to work on his voice. But the most important thing the actor has to work on is his mind."
Read quote
79 likes
"The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation."
Read quote
66 likes
"Your curse is that you have chosen a form that requires endless study .... It means you have to read, you have to observe, you have to think, so that when you turn your imagination on, it has the fuel to do its job."
Read quote
60 likes
"When you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world must listen."
Read quote
55 likes
"You have to do something. If you do something, you become somebody. Even a daffodil does something, has a profession. It gives off scent, professionally."
Read quote
51 likes
"You have to get beyond your own precious inner experiences."
Read quote
49 likes
"You'll begin to act when you can forget your technique - when it is so securely inside you that you need not call upon it consciously."
Read quote
48 likes
"You will only fail to learn if you do not learn from failing."
Read quote
47 likes
"Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you."
Read quote
45 likes
"Happy children should not try to be artists. You have to be born with a broken heart and a sense of loneliness inside. I never had a happy moment as a child myself."
Read quote
44 likes
"It's not enough to have talent. You have to have a talent for your talent."
Read quote
43 likes
"The only excuse for not coming to a class or a performance is death."
Read quote
42 likes
"When an acting teacher tells a student 'that wasn't honest work' or 'that didn't seem real,' what does this mean? In life, we are rarely 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. And characters in plays are almost never 'truthful' or 'honest' or 'real'. What exactly do teachers even mean by these words? A more useful question is: What is the story the actor was telling in their work? An actor is always telling a story. We all are telling stories, all the time. Story: that is what it is all about."
Read quote
40 likes
"One way we can enliven the imagination is to push it toward the illogical. We're not scientists. We don't always have to make the logical, reasonable leap."
Read quote
36 likes
"Acting can be the healthiest profession in the world, because it allows you to do things you can't do in real life. It allows you to understand more than just what life provides you."
Read quote
35 likes
"You act with your soul. That's why you all want to be actors, because your souls are not used up by life."
Read quote
30 likes
"Emotions aren't doable. Actions are doable, and if you do them correctly, they prompt the feelings."
Read quote
27 likes
"In life, as on the stage, it's not who I am but what I do that's the measure of my worth and the secret of my success. All the rest is showiness, arrogance and conceit."
Read quote
25 likes
"To grow: that is your deepest and truest need when you say, 'I want to be an actor.'"
Read quote
25 likes