Charles Durning Quotes

I'd like to have a decade of my life back. I dropped into a void for almost a decade.

There's no nobility with war. It's tear-'em-up destruction that leaves you frustrated, bitter and angry... If you really knew what it was like for an hour, you wouldn't want anyone to go through it.

I was doing judo before anybody knew it existed in this country.

That place that no one knows about - horrifying things we keep secret. A lot of that is released through acting.

In order for your dreams to come true, you've got to stay awake.

I was born looking older... and I've been aging since I was a teenager.

Dancing came easy for me. Acting came hard.

Of course, I'm not often the top dog, but sometimes it's better not to be top dog, because you last longer. If a movie or play flops, you always blame the lead. They say, 'He couldn't carry it.' They always blame him. But they rarely blame the second or third banana.

I would rather do a play because it's instantaneous. You go on the stage, and you know whether it's happening or not. Somebody asked me 'What is acting?' And I said, 'Acting is listening.' And if you ain't listening, nobody's listening.

Acting is ephemeral. You can't hang it on a wall. You can't throw it off. And you can't bring it out of a closet. It's there one night and it's gone the next, at least with stage acting anyhow.

You make the money in movies and TV so you can do theater. I do a play a year... somewhere.

Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don't.

If I had my druthers, I would do only stage work.

There are many secrets in us, in the depths of our souls, that we don't want anyone to know about.

I was born a character actor.

I think I've done 200 plays and 125 movies, so I've been very lucky to have made a living at acting.

I never turned down anything and never argued with any producer or director.

I lack confidence as an actor.

I can't count how many of my friends are in the cemetery at Normandy, the heroes are still there, the real heroes.

You're out there on a high wire without a net, and that's the way actors operate. They have to be fearless about how they work and they have to create a life for the audience in 90 minutes and make them believe.