Actor Quotes

To me, it's the kiss of death when you start winking at the audience as an actor. I just never liked it. I don't like it when we do monologues, looking into the character.

I've always considered myself an actor first and foremost.

Not to be offensive, not to be capricious, not to be arbitrary, not to be neurotic, not to be an actor outer, you're just trying to get in and you're given so little time to get in gently, but it's always hard.

As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I still remember thinking, "This is what I love doing, and I hope I'm going to be able to do it forever."

I've always said that I benefit, as an actor, from not having the illusion of security.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.

People need to realise what real happiness and success is, because success as an actor is fleeting. You can be up there one day and gone the next.

From that moment on I knew my profession in life was and has remained until today an actor's life.

I was in drama, wanted to be an actor.

And once you cease to be a real person, you stop being a good actor.

I like working with an actor who doesn't do the oneupmanship. One who has no trick and gives a true, honest performance.

There's always a concern as an actor that you'll be boring unless your character is swinging from a chandelier.

Actresses can get outrageously precious about the way they look. That's not what life's about. If you starve yourself to the point where your brain cells shrivel, you will never do good work. And if you're overly conscious of your arms flapping in the wind, how can you look the other actor in the eye to respond to them?

I'm a director's actor; I'm a storyteller's actor.

I definitely wanted to be an actor. I didn't want to be on TV, I didn't want to be famous, I didn't want to be anyone in particular; I just wanted to do it. I see young people now who look at magazines, or American Idol and their goal is to have that lifestyle - to have good handbags, or go out with cute guys from shows, or whatever. But I definitely wanted to be an actor.

An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.

Maybe one of the only things I do well: I cook like a maniac! I would be a chef if I weren't an actor.

Cinema is a director's medium, so you're saying, "What do you want?" Being an actor is about adapting - physically and emotionally. If that means you have to look great for it and they can make you look great, then thank you. And if you have to have everything washed away, then I'm willing to do that too.

Fear, anxiety and neurosis: that's just in the suitcase when you're an actor.

I've been a professional actor now for 38 years. A long time. And it's wonderful to earn your living doing something that you love. To think people actually give you money for it!

An actor is never so great as when he reminds you of an animal - falling like a cat, lying like a dog, moving like a fox.

Good directors can bring certain things out of you, with their intensity or gentleness or sensitivity or understanding. They can make an actor feel he can do no wrong.

I mean, it's a bit of a double-edged sword being a celebrity and being an actor as I'm sure you know. Your public laundry is constantly aired out and I thought that maybe I could do some good.

I love acting, but being an actor for hire only serves so much, and then you want to fill your well up again and be charged by something else.

But I'm not a tough guy or a street fighter for real. I'm just an actor.

Crazy is so hard to play, there's nothing you can really tell an actor.

I think you can't be really posh and be an interesting actor. I'm a bit of a posh rough.

A rapper is about being completely true to yourself. Being an actor is about changing who you are.

I finally realized that yeah I did want to be an actor and it wasn't out of habit, but I needed to grow up for myself and then kind of re-enter the industry with a sound understanding of what my sensibilities and my values are as a relatively formed human being.

The real actor has a direct line to the collective heart.