Minnie Maddern Fiske Quotes

#1. Idealistic producing is safe. Sensibly projected in the theater, the fine thing always does pay and always will.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#2. The essence of acting is the conveyance of truth through the medium of the actor's mind and person. The science of acting deals with the perfecting of that medium.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#3. Above all, ignore the audience.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#4. Go into the streets, into the slums, into the fashionable quarters. Go into the day courts and the night courts. Become acquainted with sorrow, with many kinds of sorrow. Learn of the wonderful heroism of the poor, of the incredible generosity of the very poor

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#5. This is an age of specialization, and in such an age the repertory theater is an anachronism, a ludicrous anachronism.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#6. The actor who lets the dust accumulate on his Ibsen, his Shakspere [sic], and his Bible, but pores greedily over every little column of theatrical news, is a lost soul.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#7. You must make your own blunders, must cheerfully accept your own mistakes as part of the scheme of things.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#8. People whose understanding and taste in literature, painting, and music are beyond question are, for the most part, ignorant of what is good or bad art in the theater.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#9. Be reflective ... and stay away from the theater as much as you can. Stay out of the theatrical world, out of its petty interests, its inbreeding tendencies, its stifling atmosphere, its corroding influence. Once become

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#10. An actor is exactly as big as his imagination.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#11. I have never known a movement in the theater that did not work direct and serious harm. Indeed, I have sometimes felt that the very people associated with various uplifting activities in the theater are people who are astoundingly lacking in idealism.

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#12. Among the most disheartening and dangerous of ... advisors, you will often find those closest to you, your dearest friends, members of your own family, perhaps, loving, anxious, and knowing nothing whatever ...

Minnie Maddern Fiske

#13. You must not allow yourself to be advised, cautioned, influenced, persuaded

Minnie Maddern Fiske