Laurence Olivier
Have a very good reason for everything you do.Collection: Good
I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor - to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.Collection: Knowledge
Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time - every time I have a birthday.Collection: Birthday
I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.
Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
I can't think I've ever loved anybody quite as much... My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world.
The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.
The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.
I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.
Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.
We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.
I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.
Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.
If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.
I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.
Nine books have been written about me, and there's not a word of truth in any of them.
A man's prime interest in life must be his work.
It took me two years to walk around a chair with ease; it took me another two years to learn how to laugh onstage - and I had to learn everything.
'Richard III' is a really difficult play to film - it's involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I've ever done before.
Don't waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence - doing your best.Collection: Perfection
The humility to prepare and the self-confidence to bring it off.Collection: Sports
Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. You'll be afraid you can't achieve it. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.Collection: Perfection
Don't be afraid to be outrageous; the critics will shoot you down anyway.Collection: Critics
The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.Collection: Art
Acting is an everlasting search for truth.Collection: Theatre
No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.Collection: Intelligent
Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.Collection: Theatre
Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.Collection: Eye
What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?Collection: Lying
Above all, you must remain open and fresh and alive to any new idea.Collection: Ideas
Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.Collection: Real
I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.Collection: Knowledge
In spite of a heavy disguise, a few days' growth on my face, dark glasses, a beret and one of William's jackets that fitted me not at all, as I emerged from a hotel in Lecce, a young fisherman pointed me out to his friends and said "Lavrenche Olivaire." It was not all that amazing; if you're not known in Italy, you're not known anywhere.Collection: Funny
What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.Collection: Home
If I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights.Collection: Thinking
I am far from sure when I am acting and when I am not or, should I more frankly put it, when I am lying and when I am not. For what is acting but lying and what is good acting but convincing lying?Collection: Funny
Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.Collection: Art
You think you're an artist; prove itCollection: Artist
You must have - besides intuition and sensitivity - a cutting edge that allows you to reach what you need. Also, you have to know life - bastards included - and it takes a bit of one to know one, don't you think?Collection: Cutting
Life is enthusiasm, zest.Collection: Zest
In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation's generosities this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it . . . the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it . . . must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth of the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow.Collection: Beautiful
Acting, is not a profession for adults.Collection: Acting
Without acting, I cannot breathe.Collection: Acting
Work is life for me, it is the only point of life - and with it there is almost religious belief that service is everything.Collection: Religious