Acting Quotes

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.

People acting together as a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could ever hope to bring about.

God's grace and mercy have brought you through. Quit acting as if you made it on your own.

Act before you think - your instincts are more honest than your thoughts.

Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

It's not about standing still and becoming safe. If anybody wants to keep creating they have to be about change.

The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.

I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

Your acting will not be good until it is only yours. That's true of music, acting, anything creative. You work until finally nobody is acting like you.

Forget the career, do the work. If you feel what you are doing is on line and you're going someplace and you have a vision and you stay with it, eventually things will happen.

What will finally destroy us is not communism or fascism, but man acting like God.

You think when you don't want to do anything. Thinking is a poor alternative to acting. Your thinking is consuming all your energy. Act, don't think!

I'll tell you this: you cannot escape the impact of emotion, whether it's in a big theater or a tiny one. If you have it, it inflates you — correction, 'inflates' is not a good word. If you have it, it infects you and the audience. If you don't have it — don't bother; just say the lines as truthfully as you are capable of doing. You can't fake emotion. It immediately exposes the fact that you ain't got it.

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.

This whole religion revolves around knowing the truth and acting by it, and action must be accompanied by patience.

Sincerity is the most important thing in acting. Once you can fake that, you've got it made.

An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.

It is impossible for any rational creature to be happy without acting all for God. God Himself could not make him happy any other way... There is nothing in the world worth living for but doing good and finishing God's work, doing the work that Christ did. I see nothing else in the world that can yield any satisfaction besides living to God, pleasing Him, and doing his whole will.

Faith is acting in the face of contrary evidence. The senses declare, "It cannot be," but Faith shouts above the turmoil, "It is!"

The truth of ourselves is the root of our acting.

I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker.

You know what’s more insane than [slaughterhouses]? Meat eaters. Walking around, acting like their lifestyle isn’t causing any harm.

Acting is like sex: you either do it and don't talk about it, or you talk about it and don't do it. That's why I'm always suspicious of people who talk too much about either.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life and the procedure. The process is its own reward.

It is a mournful fact that most men, and indeed all men of worldly character, have so much regard to public opinion that they dare not act according to the dictates of their consciences when acting thus would incur the popular frown.

The inner life of the [imagination], and not the personal and tiny experiential resources of the actor, should be elaborated on the stage and shown to the audience. This life is rich and revealing for the audience as well as for the actor himself.

Real inspired acting is never DOING, it is always HAPPENING

I argued that I didn't have any of the attributes to pose for cheesecake. I said I would have to make good on my acting ability, which was the only attribute I could offer.

Consider before acting, to avoid foolishness: It is the worthless man who speaks and acts thoughtlessly.

Transfer the point of concentration to some object outside of yourself - another person, a puzzle, a broken plate that you are gluing.

An actor has to burn inside with an outer ease.

Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit.

He who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence.

I began by acting like the person I wanted to be, and eventually I became that person.

An actor is totally vulnerable. His total personality is exposed to critical judgment - his intellect, his bearing, his diction, his whole appearance. In short, his ego.

I would rather do many small roles on TV, stage or film than one blockbuster that made me rich but had no acting.

I took acting and elocution lessons, to get rid of my Sicilian accent.

Even though it seems like there are a lot of parts, there is really tons of downtime in the acting world.

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

Every little moment has a meaning all its own.

Art is violent. To be decisive is violent. ... To place a chair at a partial angle on the stage destroys every other possible choice, every other option.

It takes a habit to break a habit. You can pray every day for a generous heart, but until you start acting in that direction, nothing's going to change.

Practice justice in word and deed, and do not get in the habit of acting thoughtlessly about anything.

I can't imagine being a woman in the world of acting, like where you age starts to weigh you down - you go from being attractive to where they [directors] decided you're out... I feel like with stand-up comedy, it doesn't matter if I've gotten fatter.

Being born with a pair of beady eyes was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I don't mean to sound - I don't want it to come out funny, but I don't like show business. I love - I love acting in films. I love it.

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.

Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man.

Acting in a scene is like paddling a canoe from a pebbly beach on to the river, the writer builds the canoe, and the actor provides the river. The river is the actor's thoughts and emotions.

If you're a dancer, study singing. You have to do everything and do it well. You have to study acting. You have to study all of it. You have to find workshops, get out on the stage...and fail.