Top 100 Art Acting Quotes
#1. [Human beings] will begin to recover the moment we take art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money.
Ernst Levy
#2. Acting is an art form. If you are not creating something that's unusual and informative and at least has the possibility of being illuminating, then you are not into it as an art form.
Bruce Glover
#3. I like acting, but I like filmmaking better. I went to film school. I want to make films.
Art Alexakis
#4. I always feel that art in general and acting in particular should make the audience a little uncomfortable, to slap them and wake them up.
Antonio Banderas
#5. Well my taste wasn't very good when I first started out. But later, when I began to appreciate the art of acting, I would say the actress I most admire is Vanessa Redgrave.
Ellen Burstyn
#6. I decided to take a stab at acting. I entered the American Academy of Dramatic Art, where one teacher told me I'd never make it - I was too tall.
Fred Gwynne
#8. You can see the meaning of the statement that "Literature is a living art" most easily and clearly, perhaps, by contrasting Science and Art at their two extremes - say Pure Mathematics and Acting. Science as a rule deals with things, Art with man's thought and emotion about things.
Arthur Quiller-Couch
#9. I go to universities to talk to the students and teach them how to watch movies. Movies have so many elements - acting, music, art direction, costumes. I also tell them not to watch pirated movies. At the cinema, they can enjoy the big screen and the surround sound.
Andrew Lau
#10. Sincerity and the correct use of the voice are the greatest things in the art of acting.
Alla Nazimova
#11. I just love the whole art form of acting, of being in front of a camera and playing different things. Not that I would ever say I'm the greatest actor in the world, but I am capable of playing different kinds of roles that emotionally I could get into.
Andrew Dice Clay
#12. I was born in a suburb outside of Philadelphia called Lower Merion. After taking many leaves of absence, I just received my BA from NYU in Art History. I initially gravitated towards singing. Acting sort of sprang out of that as a means to participate in musicals.
Gideon Glick
#13. Ultimately I found my community by pursuing what I loved: writing, acting, art, coffeehouses.
Laurie A. Helgoe
#14. I was born first to music. But I went into acting because my father knew so much about music he intimidated me. So, I picked an art form, he knew nothing about. So I could be my own man.
Michael Moriarty
#15. There is an art to acting, and there are techniques that are acquired. You can be as emotional as you'd like, as a person, but figuring out ways that you can bring specific emotions at specific times and have them be true, and relating to someone as someone that they're not, is a lot.
Zoe Bell
#17. Great acting is as much about the choices a performer makes as it is about their ability.
Stewart Stafford
#18. People who are artists, they want their music, their art, their acting craft to get out. And once it's appreciated, that seems to be, unfortunately, enough. But you got to take care of your business, surround yourself with good counsel, and that didn't happen.
Michael Wright
#19. The art of acting presupposes three phases: understanding a part, intuiting a part, and contemplating the essence of a part.
Franz Grillparzer
#20. I don't get it. I just don't get it. If Art is supposed to imitate Life, why do they want all the actors to be thin? There are fat people in the world. Shouldn't there be a few of us actors to represent them?
Camryn Manheim
#21. Whatever art--writing, painting, sculpture, acting, dance, music, or any other--there will be frustration & travails. It's all worth it
Mark Rubinstein
#22. Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.
Charles De Gaulle
#23. I went to comprehensive school in North London and left without any qualifications [diploma]. And I was doing bits of acting and improv in a drama club in the evenings. Then I discovered you didn't need qualifications to go to art school, you just needed a body of work.
Joe Wright
#24. I think the funny thing about acting for me - and I hold it in a very holy, spiritual way - not to be overly fundamentalist about it, but it's that important to me - is that it is an ancient healing art.
Melissa Leo
#25. I've never tried to learn the art of acting. I have been in the business for years but I still can't tell what acting is or how it's done.
Paul Muni
#26. The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.
Ralph Richardson
#27. This art of acting is a process I love very much. It's an unbelievably fulfilling experience for me and I look forward to building upon my art in the years to come.
Greg Akcelrod
#28. Twenty years earlier, in a life [Kirsten] mostly couldn't remember, she had had a small nonspeaking role in a short-lived Toronto production of King Lear. Now she walked in sandals whose soles had been cut from an automobile tire, three knives in her belt.
Emily St. John Mandel
#29. Acting is an art and a science and there is more to me then that young blonde kid.
Michael Welch
#30. I wanted to go into art history. Acting fell into my lap when a neighbor took pictures of me and showed them to an agent.
Eva Mendes
#31. Men of real talents in Arms have commonly approved themselves patrons of the liberal arts and friends to the poets, of their own as well as former times. In some instances by acting reciprocally, heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.
George Washington
#32. As Michael (Chekhov)'s pupil, I learned more about acting. I learned psychology, history, and the good manners of art - taste.
Marilyn Monroe
#33. Acting is an art form and you want to take roles that are challenged and it's more of a challenge I think to play dark characters. Not that I want to always play those, but it is a challenge and challenges are rewarding and fun.
James Franco
#34. Whether I'm acting or making it, at the end of the day it's telling the story; action, drama. You want the audience to feel it - the story, the action, the scene, or a particular shot. I just keep working on crafting my art, on how to make action movies.
Donnie Yen
#35. Opera is the most complete art form. It includes drama, acting, technology (lighting), art (the sets), dance, and the epitome of the human voices. But mostly, go for the glorious music. The arts are crucial to the life of every community.
Karen DeCrow
#36. Works of art should be stimulating. They should wake people up rather than acting like a sedative.
Tod Machover
#37. The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.
Tyne Daly
#38. I was always interested in the arts as a child - drawing, painting, and piano - but acting became a favourite. I was a major theatre geek in high school - if I wasn't in the drama room at lunch rehearsing, I'd be in the art room finishing up some type of project.
Laura Mennell
#39. I don't know what its like for most actors, but really clearly for myself acting has always been the fulfilment of personal fantasies. It isn't just art, its about being a person I've always wanted to be, or being in a situation, or being a hero.
Richard Dreyfuss
#40. I always tell younger filmmakers, it's not just about the acting or the art itself. It's about how big of an audience watches your film.
Donnie Yen
#41. Hosting is an art form. Like acting, singing, or comedy hosting is a craft. It's a delicate dance of timing, the ability to read the room, and the art of conversation.
Todd Newton
#42. Throughout my life I have taken detours in acting and writing, but art remains my abiding passion.
Gloria Vanderbilt
#43. Everybody has some talents - we all have an art side and some talent - but you have some areas where you are better than others. My area is acting, I guess. I hope.
Olivier Martinez
#44. Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all.
Ray Bradbury
#45. I love the art of acting, so I don't care if I'm in a movie with 10 people, two people, or by myself. I just really enjoy it.
Taraji P. Henson
#46. I'm not interested in being famous or anything, but I'm definitely interested in expressing emotions, and acting and filmmaking can be great outlets for that. Filmmaking is an incredible art.
Ellar Coltrane
#47. Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I'm paid to tell elaborate lies.
Mel Gibson
#48. I have just gained a deeper and deeper respect for acting and the whole art of it because you're really trying to live a life and to do the best justification for it.
Billy Magnussen
#49. I've always been a creative person since I was young. I enjoyed art, museums, plays, but it wasn't until I was about 10 that my mother encouraged me to choose a career, and it was acting.
Sufe Bradshaw
#50. Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.
Kurt Vonnegut
#51. For me, acting is about the art of it and it's about being on a film set and doing your thing, painting a blank canvas.
Shailene Woodley
#52. The concealment of art by the actor is as great a mark of genius as it is in the painter.
Francois Delsarte
#53. Making a living out of acting sounded like science-fiction when I was growing up. I didn't know anyone around me who lived from anything related to art.
Penelope Cruz
#54. At Cornell, my acting teacher said you cannot be religious and be an artist. I sort of got it, because faith is a comfort and art comes from a lot of places, in a lot of people, from the dark chasm.
Catherine Hicks
#55. I had just arrived in New York from California. I was nineteen years old and excited beyond belief. I was an art student and an acting student and behaved as most young actors did - meaning that there was no such thing as a good actor, 'cause you yourself hadn't shown up yet.
Robert Redford
#56. Anything I learned about the fine art of acting I learned from Hugo.
Cleo Moore
#57. In my opinion, if you want to pursue an art, especially acting, you have to be really perceptive of what people go through. There is so much bad in the world, and I think that acting it out and exploring it almost helps you deal with it.
Rita Volk
#58. You must write as if Dostoyevsky himself will be reading your novel, and Shakespeare will be acting it out.
Christina Westover
#59. I didn't know I wanted to act until it was around 21. I had just come back to Los Angeles after two and half years of traveling and working as a dancer and singer and was looking for a new performing art to study. I started taking acting classes and fell in love.
Caity Lotz
#60. I have the opportunity to learn about the fashion world, and I appreciate it as an art form ... But I never want it to take over my acting.
Lupita Nyong'o
#61. Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.
Jill Bennett
#62. Acting to me is a very organic art form and you just go and do it. And I like to direct the same way that I like to be directed. Let me bring in what I want to bring in, and if something's wrong, just tell me about it and I'll make some corrections or adjustments. And that's what I do.
Clint Eastwood
#63. Growing up, I always had two interests and two passions; one being public service and the other being the arts and acting.
Kal Penn
#64. I was born in the '60s and grew up in the '70s - not exactly the best decade for food in British history. It was horrendous. It was a time when, as a nation, we excelled in art and music and acting and photography and fashion - all creative skills ... all apart from cooking.
Heston Blumenthal
#65. I keep it real normal, like I don't try to act like a celebrity, or say that just because I'm on a TV show I can do other types of TV. I take it very seriously and I respect the art of acting.
Vinny Guadagnino
#66. Acting for me is not a business, it's about trying to make pieces of art that I believe that I feel proud of. And it's the journey of that.
Nicole Kidman
#67. There's so much to learn about acting and performance in general ... I mean, acting is a very complex art, and there are a lot more theories and methods and techniques to it than I think anybody would think.
Haley Joel Osment
#68. If you focus on what you want and you persevere, chances are you succeed. You know, that's what I found. It might not be in acting - it might be in business, financing, it might be in the arts, it might be in anything. But it's all about focusing and being inspired.
Cory Monteith
#69. I love all kinds of art. I mean, I love sketching and acting and music.
Amandla Stenberg
#70. The highs, the lows, the peaks, the valleys, whatever, it's all going to go into the art, whether I'm singing or acting or whatever.
Jill Scott
#71. Acting is primarily is where I want to go. But seeing how the visual effects guys work, and the special effects guys and the art department guys, how they work and seeing their visions is really interesting. I don't think those guys get the recognition they deserve.
James Phelps
#72. Judging is acting on a limited knowledge. Learn the art of observing without evaluating.
Pushpa Rana
#74. Movie acting may not have a certain kind of glory as true art, but it is damn hard work.
William Holden
#75. I was truly happy. But my state was not that of any ordinary satisfaction. It was a joy which stemmed directly from creative, artistic achievement.
Konstantin Stanislavski
#76. Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.
Ralph Richardson
#77. Acting and making art is just something I love to do, and I love to tell stories that feel important, honest and necessary.
Zoe Kravitz
#78. Some people live, eat and breathe art, and they love acting and filmmaking. I've got other loves. I love animals. I love teaching. I love kids. That's always something in the back of my mind.
Kay Panabaker
#79. Acting is the art of speaking in a loud, clear voice and the avoidance of bumping into the furniture.
Alfred Lunt
#80. I tried acting and all of the arts, I even put out a record album, but what I like the most is business.
Beverly Johnson
#81. Watching my stepfather and mother working in the industry - acting and composing - and seeing firsthand how difficult it is to achieve a successful career in the theater, I thought it might be safer to go to art school with the aim of becoming a painter.
Juliet Rylance
#82. When I was younger, I had no interest. But after I went to Paris to see the collections for the first time a few years ago, they made a huge impression on me. I realized that fashion is an art form, like acting or painting.
Camilla Belle
#83. All great art comes from a sense of outrage.
Glenn Close
#84. I think that when I was child, acting was mostly just a hobby for me. It was something that my parents encouraged me to think of the way that my brothers thought of their cross-country classes, or my little sister to dance classes and art classes, and it was something like that for me.
Mara Wilson
#85. It's not all about acting. It's about giving an art of entertainment to humanity.
Sean Berdy
#87. Then in college, besides economics, I also majored in studio art and got involved in photography and making short films and acting. But I didn't know you could make a living that way.
Brit Marling
#88. Acting per se, like all art, is a process of abstracting, of retaining only significant detail. But in impersonation any detail can be significant.
Robert A. Heinlein
#89. I fell in love with the art of acting back when I was 10 years old, actually.
Sinqua Walls
#90. I have some friends who are actors. I've watched them work. And I would say that of all the arts, acting is the most grueling, thankless. Never apologize for your work.
Kristen Stewart
#91. Own what you are, and I mean whether that's art, or whether that's fashion, or whether that's music, or whether that's acting, or whether that's politics, or whether that's literature; it's own what you are, and grab it, and, you know, be as prolific as possible.
Courtney Love
#92. This is a never-ending story we're involved in. We're just part of the acting crew.
Art Hochberg
#93. I have a very broad-minded family. Acting is an art, and we understand that.
Esha Gupta
#94. Acting is secondary - I don't feel like it's going to stick around because it's not something I want to do forever. My art has always been my top priority and I have far more experience in that field than I do in film.
Jemima Kirke
#95. I wanted to emulate my parents - Mum captained India in basketball, and Dad won a bronze in hockey in 1972 Olympics. My focus has always been to achieve excellence whether in the field of tennis, in the corporate field, in the art of acting or in motivating youngsters.
Leander Paes
#96. I think it started since I was born, I always had a need to express myself, you know, as a human being, and I found that it felt right when I expressed myself through art, dance, through acting, so it kind of happened naturally.
Alex Meraz
#97. Art is violent. To be decisive is violent ... To place a chair at a partial angle on the stage destroys every other possible choice, every other option.
Anne Bogart
#98. Acting: An art which consists of keeping the audience from coughing.
Ralph Richardson
#99. All the arts, music, the visual arts, acting and dancing arts, cooking arts, and I believe sports, will save the human race because they can leap over barriers, religions, leap over barriers of race, politics.
Pete Seeger
#100. It is not the act of making art that is painful. It is the desire to make something and not acting on it that causes pain ... A day when I don't write is less happy. This is not discipline. It is affection, enthusiasm, adventure-any number of other words besides discipline.
Julia Cameron
