Just say the lines and don’t trip over the furniture.
Sir Noël Coward, English playwright (1899–1973)
•
Television has brought back murder into the home — where it belongs.
Alfred Hitchcock, English film director (1899–1980)
•
If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.
Teatr i iskusstvo (1904)
Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short-story writer (1860–1904)
•
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
Shadows of the Gods (1958)
Arthur Miller, American playwright (1915–2005)
•
The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting.
My Autobiography (1964)
Charlie Chaplin, English comic actor, director and composer (1889–1977)
•
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a trade. With it, it becomes creation.
The Lonely Life (1962)
Bette Davis, American actress (1908–1989)
•
You spend all your life trying to do something they put people in asylums for.
Jane Fonda, American actress (1937–)
•
Acting should be like punk in the best way. It should be a full-on expression of self – only without the broken bottles.
Uncut (2000)
John Cusack, American actor (1966–)
•
Playing Shakespeare is very tiring. You never get to sit down, unless you’re a king.
Josephine Hull, American actress (1877–1957)
•
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
Time (1978)
Laurence Olivier, English actor (1907–1989)
•
A painter paints, a musician plays, a writer writes – but a movie actor waits.
A Life on Film (1967)
Mary Astor, American actress (1906–1987)
•
Acting is standing up naked and turning around slowly.
Life Is a Banquet (1977)
Rosalind Russell, American actress (1907–1976)
•
Being another character is more interesting than being yourself.
Sir John Gielgud, English actor (1904–2000)
•
The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.
Sir Ralph Richardson, English actor (1902–1983)