Top 100 Acting's Quotes
#1. I told everyone that acting's for losers and I needed to get an education. But something kept telling me to give it one last chance. In the end, I lasted a month on the M.B.A. and then decided to quit, come back to L.A., and try again.
Judi Shekoni
#3. Acting's more of a business for me now.
Randy Quaid
#4. I love acting. Acting's always been my first love. I grew up watching multi-camera television shows ... And I thought I would absolutely be in for that.
Seth Green
#5. I didn't want to break with my family. I wasn't about to make waves. But I had this feeling I wanted to do something that I liked to do. Acting's what I liked to do most. There must have been a moment when I felt, 'Oh, my God, I like this and what am I going to do about it?'
Charles Kimbrough
#6. My acting's very understated. I think my sad and happy don't play that differently onscreen.
Bret McKenzie
#7. Acting's difficult for me because I think you have to be passionately involved in what you're doing.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
#8. Acting's not therapy, but it can be therapeutic.
Josh Peck
#9. I love film acting - I'm not snobby about it. I don't think that theater acting's a more noble profession. I think they're both very important. I love both. And in my dream world, I'd get to do both forever.
Rebecca Hall
#10. Acting's not about nose jobs and liposuction. It's about being truthful to what you're doing.
Phylicia Rashad
#11. Acting's all about stepping out of the box, so I don't want to go to work every day and play Cassie Scerbo at all.
Cassie Scerbo
#12. This acting's serious! And I really respect those actors. It's a tough business to be able to be something you're not and be natural and convince people on camera.
Michael Strahan
#13. Acting's all about the confidence you exude, especially on film. I mean, nervousness isn't attractive in anyone, but a film camera will seek it out and punish you.
John C. Reilly
#14. Music is my life - acting's just a hobby.
Steve Burns
#15. Honestly, I don't look at it as work because I have way too much fun on set to actually classify it as work. I know a lot of people who are like, 'Man, acting's so much work.' And I'm like, 'No, it's not. I'm having fun.' And I want to keep doing that. I don't ever want to give up acting.
Billy Unger
#16. Acting's not particularly complicated. But the great thing is you can step into somebody else's shoes without dealing with the consequences. It's very therapeutic in that way.
Nick Robinson
#18. It's like kids playing house: 'You play the father, I'll play the mother.' You know, you dress up, you play, they pay, you go home. It's a game - acting's a game.
Robert Duvall
#19. Acting's incredibly enjoyable, but sometimes it doesn't feel quite enough. I've also written a script about the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine. This will make me sound like a female Kenneth Branagh, but I can't think of anything nicer than directing myself from a script I wrote.
Honeysuckle Weeks
#20. Acting's the best job there is. Pretending to be someone you're not is good fun. It's also a non-ageist profession, and you get to work all over the world with people you admire.
Sean Pertwee
#21. Anyone who goes on the stage is a show-off, aren't they? Acting's weird.
Celia Imrie
#22. Acting's not my whole life. My children definitely come first.
Meg Tilly
#23. Acting's always felt like a kind of creature that lays dormant and collects observations when I'm not working. And then when I'm actually doing it, it just rises up. But everything I do is more about curiosity and investigation than it is about performance.
Benn Northover
#24. Acting's fine if the script's written by Paddy Chayefsky and Martin Scorsese directs it, but unless you have something like that, I don't really enjoy acting.
Jeff Garlin
#25. I'm a history nerd. Actually acting's the best job for somebody who loves weird, different stuff.
Lauren Cohan
#26. I find that the acting's getting easier - with experience, everything is more instinctual.
Ewan McGregor
#27. But it's healthy - whatever you can do to keep you fresh and awake. Acting's such a ridiculous job and sometimes you need to look at it like that to get a sort of degree of freshness.
Eric Bana
#28. When you're acting, everything is there around you, you just have to believe that it's real. When you're standing there with a slightly grey wig on and you have a baby in your arms screaming in your ear, you can go: "Well, I guess this is what it's like!"
Jim Sturgess
#29. I was 26 when I went to my first acting class. I'm naturally quite shy. I'm a quite private person. There's this really strange acting class in New York called Black Nexxus. For someone who's slightly shy or self-conscious, it's the most frightening thing you can do.
Hannah Ware
#30. You can't have bank holding companies acting as hedge funds. You can't have them taking a million-dollar pension plan for Joe Schmo the bus driver and treat it with the same risk appetite that you treat George Soros' pocket money. It's fundamentally ridiculous.
Shia Labeouf
#31. Alan Alda and his wife Arlene are two of the most life-affirming people I've ever met. He espoused equal rights for women while producing, writing, acting in and directing 'M*A*S*H'; he used to commute between the set and home because he didn't want to disrupt his kids' schooling.
Sanjeev Bhaskar
#32. Movie stars are insecure like everyone else. That's why they go into acting!
Penny Marshall
#33. I see all these people talking about acting as a great spiritual thing. It's not. There's no great mystery to acting. It's a very simple thing to do, but you have to work hard at it. It's about asking questions and using your imagination.
Eddie Marsan
#34. Having a chance to be someone other than yourself and to act out stuff that makes people look at you, like, wow, and that's why I love acting so much.
Quinton Aaron
#35. It's hard talking about acting, in a way, because it's like explaining a joke: I do think it loses something in the telling.
Martin Freeman
#36. The thing I hate most in acting is asking permission to do things. What you really want to do is say, 'This is my need; this is what's going to get me further; this is what's going to be alive. I don't ever say, 'Do you mind if ... ?' I just come in and do it.
Lance Henriksen
#37. I have quite a normal family and I'm bored with how normal my family is. I want to mess stuff up a bit. I chose the messed up characters because I find that that's acting. I want to explore emotions that you otherwise wouldn't be able to explore.
Chloe Grace Moretz
#38. Acting is something that I always wanted, but I never paid attention to the notion that it might actually work out. You have all sorts of ideas about what you want to do - at one stage, I wanted to be a jockey - but this is the one that's a big deal.
Olivia Thirlby
#39. I've always approached acting from a passion point of view. It's what I love to do. The fact that you get paid is just a bonus
Katheryn Winnick
#40. I don't like to spend a lot of money on haircuts: I'll sometimes grow my hair and get an acting job and get them to cut it for free. I think for a lady, though, it's okay to spend a lot on a haircut.
Paul Dano
#41. It's very different. You do so many things in this play. You can't just focus on acting or singing. You have to be good at both. I'm very glad I did this play.
Will Davis
#42. Some kids are good at math, some kids can run, and acting was an interest of mine. Because I knew you could do it for a living I decided, that's what I'm going to do.
Jonny Lee Miller
#43. Modelling is only about the look. In acting, it's the feel that matters.
Agyness Deyn
#44. Putin must be punished for violating the Budapest Memorandum, and Russia must learn that the U.S. will isolate it if it insists on acting like a rogue nation.
Rand Paul
#45. I do have a huge fascination for science, and I love to hear what my dad has to say. He used to take me into minor surgeries when I was a kid and let me watch, so I definitely have a passion for it, but it's not as big a passion as I have for acting and creating characters.
Daniela Ruah
#46. When I was a little kid, my parents would show me Marx Brothers' films and westerns and stuff like that. That's where all my desire to be an actor comes from and probably most of my understanding of acting comes from for sure.
Alden Ehrenreich
#47. For me, acting in scenes with other people is like playing soccer with a bunch of legless five year olds. It's not really fair to them, but what else can I do, you know?
Zach Braff
#48. You know, it's hard for me to, like, act the way I've been acting and, like, being, like, nice to everyone. And I feel, like, I deserve to be acknowledged for that.
Aaryn Gries
#49. I want to be a great actor someday, and I've decided there's no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft.
Al Pacino
#50. As an actor, acting is like playing a sport. You do this thing that's intangible, and while it's happening, it's great. But then when it's done, there's really no tangible product. Someone else is capturing it and turning it into something tangible.
Chris Evans
#51. There is a perfect rout of characters in every man - and every man is like an actor's trunk, full of strange creatures, new & old. But an actor and his trunk are two different things
Wallace Stevens
#52. In my experience it's not essential to get on with the person that you're acting opposite.
Hugh Dancy
#53. Acting is something I've done since I was six years old, performing for my mum and my family in the living room, and I do it because my heart's in it.
Lily Cole
#54. On some level in acting, what you're trying to find is truth, because when it's true is when it's also funny.
David Hyde Pierce
#55. I really enjoy acting, and whether it's TV or films, I feel lucky to be doing it at all. In the end, I'd love to do films, but I'm not going to work just to do work. I only want to do something that I feel right about.
Amanda Bynes
#56. I think it's a shame when you come across young actors and musicians who haven't had the time to learn their craft. It doesn't matter if it's acting or music; you really have to learn how to do it from the bottom up because unless you have a great work ethic ... fame is a terrible thing to have.
Denis Leary
#57. That's the hardest part of acting: when it is ultra-personal, when it is deeply personal, and there's no lying involved. You can't fake it, you can't get by it. This is dealing with the most primal instincts and emotions that a mother can have.
Patricia Clarkson
#58. The theater is a kind of international language, and I like it. But I have a practical bent of mind, too. In any other field, I could make only about a tenth as much as I do acting. That's why I want to be a producer. It pays better, and you have more control.
Carolyn Jones
#59. But it's hard to sustain a successful acting career today.
James MacArthur
#60. But a quick-acting poison, that's different. It strikes with blind swiftness. You can be bit by temptation anytime. It is a thought, a direction, a noise in your brain, a hunch, an intuition that leads you to darker places than you've ever imagined. I
Louise Erdrich
#61. I'm far, far, far from that. But of course, that's one of the joys of acting is that you can move up in the world, even if - you know, in the characters that you're playing, even if you don't.
Maggie Smith
#62. It doesn't work that way, you know, because most parts that you think you'd do well, most other people don't. So they offer you something - The Avengers is a good example ... I fitted into that because I came from that sort of background. It's not even acting.
Patrick Macnee
#63. I think acting for sure takes a lot of dedication, especially when you're starting out, because it's so much rejection and it's so important to really study and know your craft.
Bitsie Tulloch
#64. Acting is a win-win situation. There is no risk involved. That's why I get tired of hearing actors who try to make out that there's a downside to it. Fame is an odd thing. It bugs you a little bit, but it's really not bad.
John Corbett
#65. I would say that Emma Stone and Emma Watson are two very talented young actresses who are very intelligent and have a great sense of humor and have learned to balance what they love with their acting career, and I think that's really a great thing.
Kara Hayward
#66. I did direct two short movies. I learned many things, and one of the things I learned was that I am not a director. It has to be visceral, and it's not for me. I feel much more comfortable acting.
Vincent Cassel
#67. I love acting. It's an interesting challenge to make something that doesn't exist appear like it's happening, and to do it in a real way.
Ray Liotta
#68. I realized then that both Gladys and Norm were smiling at about the time I realized that Max and I were acting like lunatics.
"I don't think she's tied up in knots anymore, Gladie," Norm observed.
"She is, dear, just not ones she wants to untie," Gladys remarked.
Kristen Ashley
#69. Acting requires a lot of discipline to go with the obsession. It's a path of knowledge, and of self-knowledge. Sometimes you get lost on the path. And then you find yourself again.
Toni Servillo
#70. I've always had a strange acting life. I'm the daughter of a director, and a very French, typical director who fell in love with every single one of his actresses. And that's also something that's kind of normal in the acting business, because everything is based on desire, one way or the other.
Lou Doillon
#71. With big, emotional roles it's very easy, especially if you've grown up in the American school of acting, to exploit your own pain. You have to be careful about that, because 9 times out of 10, your pain is not appropriate to the character.
Laura Linney
#72. The urge to act became the overriding force in my life. It thrilled me. There's a moment with acting when you're in the groove, and you and what you're trying to do are seamlessly one. That happens sometimes, and I'm really happy it can happen to me.
Rupert Graves
#73. I really do consider myself quite fledgling in my acting career. I've only been doing it for 10 years and that's a short amount of time, really.
Ed Speleers
#74. Dude, writing, acting and directing are such easy jobs. But to do them all as awesomely as Zach Braff does, well that ... that's something.
Zach Braff
#75. This apartment is acting like nothing has changed. Everything has changed. I tell the walls he's gone.
Taylor Jenkins Reid
#77. I really enjoy acting. At home I can't even finish a sentence, and here I am reading these wonderful lines. I think it must be every housewife's dream, to be an actress part-time.
Meg Tilly
#78. Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.
Michael Caine
#79. Acting, to me, has been many things: It's a business, and it's a craft, and it's a political act - it's whatever adjective is most applicable.
Adam Driver
#80. Now that was one thing, but from an actor's point of view, this poor young man, crying from the moment I opened the door to the moment he left. Now if an actor did that they would say he's over-acting.
Rod Steiger
#81. I never really wanted to grow up. I grew up really young. I moved out when I was 13 - that's when I started acting.
Helena Bonham Carter
#82. The most interesting thing about acting is when you go to the dark places, that's a lot of energy. When you go to the happiest places, it's also a lot of energy.
Jamie Foxx
#83. It's really fun to go back and forth from acting projects to directing projects. You don't have as much responsibility when you're acting, but you have more fun. But then you miss having that responsibility, and so you go back and torture yourself and make a movie.
Katie Aselton
#84. I make something I can look at and say, "That's a good piece of work, and there's some terrific directing and acting in it, and you should be proud of it."
Wes Craven
#85. It's all about story and character with me, and I don't care if the job is on daytime or prime time or the web. Hey, give me a good character and someone to listen, and I'll do my acting on a street corner.
Justin Hartley
#86. Acting is like sex: you either do it and don't talk about it, or you talk about it and don't do it. That's why I'm always suspicious of people who talk too much about either.
Humphrey Bogart
#87. I always enjoyed writing. I did playlets in high school, I did radio shows in college. That's one of the reasons I went down to Second City, because you could do acting and writing.
Dan Castellaneta
#88. I understand acting and I understand actors. I don't really understand the world of celebrity. That's just bizarre. Those sorts of elements I'm at sea with.
Sam Neill
#89. Basically, editing is done in rehearsal and in the writing process and in the acting, so it's very, very tricky, very, very tricky.
Julie Delpy
#90. I love what I do, and for me, acting can be anything. It could be in America. It could be in India. It could be in England. It could be anything. As long as it's an interesting part and an interesting opportunity, I would love to do it.
Priyanka Chopra
#91. I like acting too much and it's too, I'm just too busy doing that and I'm too hungry for it, to get behind the camera. I mean, unless I could act in it, too. I don't think I've got the right brain. I'm too disorganized.
Rachel Weisz
#92. The actual time you're acting is miniscule compared to the time you're getting ready to do the work. The big difference on series television is, there's not a lot of hanging-out time. You're pumping those pages out, you're doing six, seven, eight pages a day. And I like that pace.
Joe Mantegna
#93. Acting is trying to be absolutely truthful; to get audiences to believe that you are a dean, when, actually, not only are you not the dean, but if you walked into the building they'd probably throw you out. That's very hard.
Wallace Shawn
#94. I think acting is definitely the most fulfilling, because it's the most challenging in my mind.
Estella Warren
#95. I went to my mum at about seven or eight and said I want to start acting, but the week before, I had said I wanted to do ballet. She said if I took acting classes for a full year, she would look further into it, and that's how it started.
Hailee Steinfeld
#96. Acting was always a part and faucet of my life. It just comes very natural. I think it's a good thing.
Nicki Minaj
#97. Beauty is nature's way of acting at a distance.
Denis Dutton
#98. In terms of work, obviously acting is such a job that is very in the flesh kind of thing. It's your work, but it's your life, in a way. You can get so mixed up.
Gael Garcia Bernal
#99. So I will say this, "if any man marries just because of the emotions he feels towards a woman without first seeking the face of God to confirm if she is the suitable support needed for his life's assignment, such a man is acting in error.
Aderinsola Obasa
#100. It's a blessing and a curse. But it's not always the best situation to be in. As a profession, I don't recommend acting at all.
Armand Assante
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