Acting Quotes

I remember once when I told Lindsay Anderson at a party that acting was just a sophisticated way of playing cowboys and Indians he almost had a fit.

Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didn't read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.

Acting gave me the opportunity to do outrageous things. It allowed me to be sad, happy, angry and lustful, even if it was just vicariously.

Whenever you're in any acting role you are mortgaging your own character.

Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on.

My approach to acting is that I am totally intuitive. I read the script and I get it. If I don't get it, I can't do it.

When I went to Los Angeles right after high school, I got some acting jobs, and I never, ever wanted to be an actress! Public speaking and acting make me want to vomit. But I have never been nervous singing. When it comes to public speaking, I stumble on my words, sweat, and pull at my clothes.

I was equally in love with singing and acting from an early age.

Now my drug is writing or acting, being creative.

There are kids who get on a BMX bike when they're eight years old and they go, 'Whoa, this is incredible,' and grow up to do extreme sports. It's the same for me with acting.

Some of the newer folks in the industry, I'm not sure they are familiar with the term acting. They don't understand what it means to play a character rather than just be a personality.

But I'm not objective when I'm acting.

The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you're in front of a camera or when you're on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting.

I like to rehearse with the actors scenes that are not in the script and will not be in the film because what we're really doing is trying to establish their character, and good acting to me is about reacting.

Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character.

I use every single thing that Alfred Hitchcock taught me in my acting career... I am very grateful for the education he gave me in making motion pictures.

I originally envisioned myself doing something with the suffix 'ology' at the end of it, like marine biology or entomology. But after I started to do some acting gigs, I thought it wasn't a bad thing... I said to myself, 'I might as well keep riding this bus until the wheels fall off.'

Acting is definitely put at the back of my mind, if it's there at all right now. It's all entertainment.

I did my acting performance in 'Roger Rabbit.' I think I did a voice-over also in 'Osmosis Jones' and I directed an episode of my show years ago, 'Tales from the Crypt' and that's my endeavors in the non-producer oriented ranks.

I get my exercise acting as a pallbearer to my friends who exercise.

Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.

You get money out of acting. You get gray hair out of directing. Actually, I get more of a rush from directing.

There is less pressure as a character actor. It generally means that you will be acting for all of your life, which is my intention. It is not my intention to just be a rich and famous person, that would be pretty boring.

Music is something that I have to do on a regular basis. It really is my life and I absolutely love it. It's a part of my day-to-day. So if I had to choose, it would be music. But I love acting too.

When I was a child, I went to stage school three times a week in the evenings - singing, ballet, tap, modern and acting, and I loved it.

Once I start putting all my little insecurities in my mind, I'm not actually acting. Then it's about me - and it should never be about me. It should be about the character.

When you do a lot of acting your entire life, you see the entire set from one point of view. To have a chance to step back and pull it all together is really exciting. You want to do it all; you want to have a hand in everything.

An acting career usually has about a shelf life of ten years before people get sick of seeing you. It's a good thing to have a job to fall back on and I really do enjoy directing.

I wanted to play a TV detective because it's a rite of passage; I wanted to experience every area of acting. I haven't done comedy or as much Shakespeare as I had intended.

My favorite way of getting out of doing chores is by acting like I'm asleep. But it never works.