ACTOR QUOTES
FILM MAKING TIPS

Even a fool knows you can't touch the stars, but it won't keep the wise from trying.
-- Harry Anderson

I know that if I can't move people, then I have no business being an actor.
-- Alan Arkin

A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly.
-- Kevin Bacon

I went into show business because I love to work with people, and what I enjoy most about acting is rehearsing and getting to know people and their talents, forming relationships. Working in this business, barriers drop and you get into people real quickly.
-- Scott Bakula

Great acting can be almost a psychotic mix of self-consciousness and unself-consciousness. And that's the terrible conflict. You have to be free to jump off into that volcano and you have to be pathologically self-conscious.
-- Alec Baldwin

You're not a star until they can spell your name in Karachi.
-- Humphrey Bogart

In live stage, the actor lives.
-- Peter Boyle

An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer.
-- Marlon Brando

I'm foremost an actor. I feel embarrassed being compared to the guys who really work at it. I fake it, I make believe I know all about it, which is what you're supposed to do as an actor.
-- Lloyd Bridges

I'm very manipulative towards directors. My theory is that everyone on the set is directing the film, we're all receiving art messages from the universe on how we should do the film.
-- Jeff Bridges

Nothing to me feels as good as laughing incredibly hard.
-- Steve Carell

Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that. I just started doin' it in front of an audience and had to deliver.
-- David Carradine

Certainly anybody who auditions for the role is an actor, so everybody brings whatever backstory they have, their experiences in LA. Good or bad.
-- Thomas Haden Church

Failure and its accompanying misery is for the artist his most vital source of creative energy.
-- Montgomery Clift

You jot down ideas, memories, whatever, concerning your real life that somehow parallels the character you're playing, and you incorporate that in your scene work.
-- Chris Cooper

I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quarters, nine-tenths. If I'm going to do something, I go all the way.
-- Tom Cruise

One of the pleasures of being an actor is quite simply taking a walk in someone else's shoes. And when I look at the roles I've played, I'm kind of amazed at all the wonderful adventures I've had and the different things I've learned.
-- Willem Dafoe

Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change - it can not only move us, it makes us move.
-- Ossie Davis

When you become a star, you don't change - everyone else does.
-- Kirk Douglas

I'm not a big filmophile. I don't watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they're going to end.
-- Michael Douglas

I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker.
-- Robert Downey, Jr.

I don't know what its like for most actors, but really clearly for myself acting has always been the fulfilment of personal fantasies. It isn't just art, its about being a person I've always wanted to be, or being in a situation, or being a hero.
-- Richard Dreyfuss

Acting is the easiest money you'll ever make in your life, and directing is probably the hardest money.
-- Charles S. Dutton

I'll keep on acting 'til they wipe the drool. I like the business. I like to do different parts and diverse characters. I haven't lost my enthusiasm yet!
-- Robert Duvall

I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.
-- Clint Eastwood

As you grow in this business, you learn how to do more with less.
-- Morgan Freeman

I'm an actor... I do a job and I go home. Why are you interested in me? You don't ask a truck driver about his job.
-- James Gandolfini

Do your job and demand your compensation - but in that order.
-- Cary Grant

Dysfunctional families have sired a number of pretty good actors.
-- Gene Hackman

I like to act with people that know what they're doing.
-- Ed Harris

As an artist, I understand that, and I value the creative input of the artist.
-- Charlton Heston

I decided to become an actor because I was failing in school and I needed the credits.
-- Dustin Hoffman

Being unemployed is not good for an actor. No, it isn't, no matter how unsuccessful you are. Because you always remember getting fired from all the restaurants. You remember that stuff very, very strongly.
-- Philip Seymour Hoffman

You know, this is such a rich time that we've just been involved in, and there's really a job now for historians. Film is still very young. This is the first hundred years of filmmaking. So I think it's important that we have some sense of history and continuity. Especially in film.
-- Dennis Hopper

A lot of people are taking those risks on the basis of something so unconsidered that it's completely capricious. That's one of the reasons why actors are not respected anymore as actors.
-- William Hurt

Acting is fun for me and it doesn't really matter how, whether it's hard work or easy work, it's always fun.
-- Tommy Lee Jones

I mean, you work and you try and find the work that suits you the best and you enjoy the most.
-- Harvey Keitel

I do give a great deal of forethought and zone in on character and all sorts of things like that. Never before have I just stuffed something away in the back cupboard of my brain because it was just such a crazy concept.
-- Greg Kinnear

I like a lot of things about my job, but in particular I like that the actors get to come to work and explore behavior, explore people's life rules. The rules that we set up for ourselves to live by, when do we break them? When do we change them? Those are the things that turn me on about acting.
-- Peter Krause

If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable.
-- Jack Lemon

Whatever success I've had, I always like to top it.
-- Bernie Mac

As an actor, you're always in situations that can be compromising. But you can wipe away that gray area by making a choice.
-- Kyle MacLachlan

I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.
-- William H. Macy

Every actor has to establish a presence that not only fits the overall needs of the story but allows him to interact with other actors in a credible and meaningful way. Every actor wants to work under conditions and with material that enables them to create and use their craft.
-- Tobey Maguire

I've permitted myself to learn and to fail with some regularity. And that is probably the one thing I was given, and that I'm still grateful for.
-- John Malkovich

Every actor looks all his life for a part that will combine his talents with his personality... 'The Odd Couple' was mine. That was the plutonium I needed. It all started happening after that.
-- Walter Matthau

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.
-- Ian Mckellen

If anything, as a general rule, the cheaper the movie the more creative the experience, generally speaking. It's not to denigrate expensive movies. I don't want to seem biting the hands that feed me, but with big movies, especially with a lot of effects, the role of the actor is somewhat diminished.
-- Alfred Molina

If you're trying to please everyone, then you're not going to make anything that is honestly yours, I don't think, in the long run.
-- Viggo Mortensen

I think all phases of one's career are serious if you take it seriously no matter if you are doing high profile dramatic pieces or not.
-- Bill Murray

Acting is invigorating. But I don't analyse it too much. It's like a dog smelling where it's going to do its toilet in the morning.
-- Liam Neeson

Every time I get a script it's a matter of trying to know what I could do with it. I see colors, imagery. It has to have a smell. It's like falling in love. You can't give a reason why.
-- Paul Newman

Because you know, down deep in my heart, when all is said and done, I still live under the illusion that basically people think of me as an up-and-coming young actor.
-- Jack Nicholson

I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.
-- Robert De Niro

I never felt comfortable in real life very well. It's always been an awkward kind of thing for me and so when I hit the stage I just sensed freedom. I sensed here's a place that I can have all the experiences of life and not feel uncomfortable about it.
-- Nick Nolte

My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.
-- Al Pacino

One of the most important reasons for living is to do something - live outside of yourself and put together an idea, an idea that you want to explore and then complete... Awaken your creative sensitivities!
-- Jack Palance

I liked seeing myself in a different costumes and doing different actions. It's a chance to be something you're not.
-- Bill Paxton

Inside of all the makeup and the character and makeup, it's you, and I think that's what the audience is really interested in... you, how you're going to cope with the situation, the obstacles, the troubles that the writer put in front of you.
-- Gregory Peck

I appreciate words, and I appreciate acting, so combining those elements into a film is the ultimate act of appreciation.
-- Sean Penn

Basically, we are a whole world of people desperately trying to figure out what is the dark side of our natures and how much can we explore without becoming something else.
-- William Petersen

I have twenty personalities on top of the ten I already have. So now I have thirty people in my head!
-- River Phoenix

I have a hard time with morals. All I know is what feels right, what's more important to me is being honest about who you are. Morals I get a little hung up on.
-- Brad Pitt

A good deed here, a good deed there, a good thought here, a good comment there, all added up to my career in one way or another.
-- Sidney Poitier

Even when I was a little kid, I always said I would be in the movies one day, and damned if I didn't make it.
-- Richard Pryor

Filmgoers are starved for new ideas, voices and visions.
-- Robert Redford

I knew when I grew up, I always wanted to be a liar, and if you're in television, you're lying because you're just pretending to be yourself much like I'm doing now.
-- John Ritter

All I know is, I don't do a lot of analysis. I know those words have to move me. I rely on the author. I don't want actors reasoning with me about 'motivation' and all that bull. All I want 'em to do is learn the goddamn lines and don't bump into each other.
-- Jason Robards

Doing comedy for film is always a challenge because you are in the hands of the editor after the fact. I am hoping I can do some more soon, I enjoy doing comedy.
-- Tim Roth

If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.
-- Peter Sellers

Acting is easier - writing is more creative. The lazy man vies with the industrious.
-- William Shatner

I open myself up every time I walk on screen and give you everything that I am. There are parts of me that are in every movie that I've done. That to me is what my job is.
-- Kevin Spacey

I believe there's an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.
-- Sylvester Stallone

It's well done if you can do a part and not have the acting show.
-- Jimmy Stewart

I don't think I have one iota of cynicism about acting.
-- Donald Sutherland

Acting is playing - it's actually going out on a playground with the other kids and being in the game, and I need that. Writing satisfies that part of myself that longs to sit in my room and dream.
-- Billy Bob Thornton

My goal as an actor has always been to reach a level where I can find a lot of interesting work, and I think I'm at that point now. The Oscar has given me a lot of recognition.
-- Benicio Del Toro

A lot of people tend to chew up the scenery. I'm a firm believer in less is more, especially on the big screen.
-- Mark Wahlberg

Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn't matter how good you are.
-- Denzel Washington

A good artist should be isolated. If he isn't isolated, something is wrong.
-- Orson Welles

TOP 100 SEX SCENES of all-time WATCH the revised 2011 list!	TOP 100 NAKED MOVIE SCENES WATCH the all! Best in cinema history!	TOP 100 TV SEX SCENES WATCH the best in television history!	WATCH - Best of ET Radio PODCASTS!

CLICK and WATCH MOVIES ONLINE!

---

---

YouTube MySpace Facebook Twitter

NEXT Film Festival Night SUBMIT Your Film FILM Festival Videos SCREENPLAY Festival Videos

SUBMIT your 1st Scene SUBMIT Your Script SUBMIT Your TV Script SUBMIT Your 1 Page Script

WATCH Movies 2011 Movies Best of SEX Best of MOVIES

Movie SCENES Top 100 ACTORS Top 100 ACTRESSES Top 100 DIRECTORS

PICTURES Top 100 FUNNY Top 100 TV SEX Movie TRAILERS

ACTOR QUOTES