20th-century Actor Quotes

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

The greatest piece of acting or music or sculpture or what-have-you always has its roots in the truth of human emotion.

Sanford Meisner

It's nice to have a nun around. Gives the place a bit of glamour.

Arthur Mathews (writer)

Words are like children. The more care you lavish on them, the more they demand.

It came to a point where I had no idea where Picard began and I ended. We completely overlapped. His voice became my voice, and there were other elements of him that became me.

Patrick Stewart

Trying to be Sherlock Holmes is like trying to catch an arrow in mid-flight.

In my opinion, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't qualified to be governor of California.

Whales play, in an amniotic paradise.
Their light minds shaped by buoyancy, unrestricted by gravity,
Somersaulting.
Like angels, or birds;
Like our own lives, in the womb.

Heathcote Williams

I think it tells the truth and it cuts to the heart of so many profound aspects of human experience unlike many musicals, which cover more frivolous topics.

I do not know if it is true that all actors want to direct and all directors want to act, but in 1972 I tried directing and decided I had better stick to acting.

James Earl Jones

You're a real blue flame special, aren't you son? Young, dumb and full of come, I know. What I don't know is how you got assigned here. Guess we must have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?

John C. McGinley

I have found that certain agents, certain chemicals have the power to disturb the trembling immateriality of the seemingly solid body in which we walk.

The film resonated deeply with 13-year-old boys. It seemed to give expression to all their insecurities and fears. It is about a teenage boy who's lost his dad, his mom and his older brother, and I think the whole story is his coping with this great loss by fantasizing about death and this ominous figure who strides through your life quite unpredictably and more than decimates it. It dealt in a very entertaining way with a subject that haunts all of us at the back of our minds.

My only obligation is to keep myself and other people guessing.

When I am at my work each day
In the fields so fresh and green
I often think of riches and the way things might have been
But believe me when I tell you when I get home each day
I'm as happy as a sandboy with my wee cup of tay

Patrick McCabe (novelist)

I wouldn't be seen dead with a woman old enough to be my wife.

Help! I'm David of Sesame Street, and they're trying to kill me!

Northern Calloway

Look at that! Look how she moves! That's just like jell-O on springs. She must have some sort of built-in motor or something, huh? I tell you it's a whole different sex.

Listening to critics is like letting Muhammad Ali decide which astronaut goes to the moon.

To the actor Victor Spinetti:

Ah, Victor, still struggling to keep your head below water?

I'm going to tell you a delicious piece of gossip. Now listen very carefully because I'm only going to tell it to you once, because I promised not to repeat it.

A lot of people can forget about you in Los Angeles.

Viggo Mortensen

I just feel like I really want to be someone who literally disappears in the role. I want to be so strong as an actor that people wouldn't say [for example] 'Oh, that's Ben Affleck.' To me, that's just boring. It doesn't interest me. My goal is to always have the ability at hand where I can be really good, as opposed to, eh, that's Josh Lucas.

What the future will understand about your time and your culture and what you've contributed to it will be influenced by art. That is much more valuable than warships. The rest of the world may be affected by a bomb we drop on them, but their perception of our society will come through the arts.

I like looking at the characters. Seeing them always brings up some voice or attitude. I am much more visual and that works so much better than having someone tell me what the character is all about