Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character and it is not easy. It involves a broad range of skills and they have many different souls and many different body. Inspirational acting quotes will uncover some secret recipe for success and give you the motivation to live the life of passion.
If you’re searching for top quotes and sayings that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of inspirational art quotes, famous music quotes, and great reading quotes.
Famous Acting Quotes
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Sanford Meisner
You’re not going there to get a job. You’re going there to present what you do. Bryan Cranston
An actor is a fool for God. Gerardine Clark
If you’re an actor, even a successful one, you’re still waiting for the phone to ring. Kevin Bacon
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a business. With it, it becomes creation. Bette Davis
My thought process has always been, I’m excited to show you what my version of this story would look like. You’re going to be able to get a little condensed show. That took the pressure off getting the job Tituss Burgess
The best acting is instinctive. It’s not intellectual, it’s not mechanical, it’s instinctive Craig MacDonald
If all the circumstances of acting are made too easy, then there’s no grain of sand to make the pearl. Peter Sarsgaard
That’s what makes acting so attractive. You get to break all your own rules. Gerardine Clark
It’s important to say that the more challenging a scene is, in a way, the more fun it is because the more of my job I get to do. Daniel Radcliffe
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life. Bette Davis
Learn to live your life there’s no recipe for it. You can’t go to acting school to learn to be a deep person with a lot of experience to draw from; you can only become that person by feeling, by getting hurt, by feeling incredibly happy, by seeing the world; those are the things that make you richer as a person and give you a much bigger bank to draw from when you bring characters to life. Pablo Schreiber
Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly. Rosalind Russell
If you risk nothing, then you risk everything. Geena Davis
Find in yourself those human things which are universal. Sanford Meisner
Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency. Denzel Washington
The more personal, the more universal. Gary Ballinger
If you live in the past that’s depression, and if you live in the future that’s anxiety. So you have no choice but to live in the present. Sarah Silverman
An actor has to burn inside with an outer ease. Michael Chekhov
Giving voice to characters that have no other voice that’s the great worth of what we do. Meryl Streep
Use what you know. Don’t worry about what you don’t know Michael Shurtleff
For me, our job as artists is to serve the story, serve the director, and serve the fellow actors. And if you do that, by osmosis you’re serving yourself because you’ll get the best out of yourself. David Oyelowo
The actor has to develop his body. The actor has to work on his voice. But the most important thing the actor has to work on is his mind. Stella Adler
We think too much and feel too little. Charlie Chaplin
An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words Sanford Meisner
When you’re in a theater, it’s about reaching the back rows. When you have a camera in your face, it’s just about knowing the size of the room. Corey Stoll
Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance. Michael Shurtleff
An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer. Marlon Brando
If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. Jack Lemmon
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a business. With it, it becomes creation. Bette Davis
Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential. Michael Shurtleff
I’m curious about other people. That’s the essence of my acting. I’m interested in what it would be like to be you. Meryl Streep
Listening is not merely hearing. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is active. Michael Shurtleff
All an actor has is their blind faith that they are who they say they are today, in any scene. Meryl Streep
Whatever you decide is your motivation in the scene, the opposite of that is also true and should be in it. Michael Shurtleff
I need to go where people are serious about acting. Meryl Streep
Humor in a scene is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the 59th Street Bridge. Michael Shurtleff
With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise, it’s just not acting. It’s lying. Johnny Depp
Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before Michael Shurtleff
Just let the wardrobe do the acting. Jack Nicholson
The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself. Michael Shurtleff
One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people’s lives without having to pay the price. Robert De Niro
Competition [in a scene] is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don’t want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first rate actors. Michael Shurtleff
Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life. Quitting acting, that’s the sign of maturity. Marlon Brando
Honesty isn’t enough for me. That becomes very boring. If you can convince people what you’re doing is real and it’s also bigger than life that’s exciting. Gene Hackman
It’s got to do with putting yourself in other people’s shoes and seeing how far you can come to truly understand them. I like the empathy that comes from acting. Christian Bale
Take nothing for granted. Make an emotional discovery as often as you can find one in every scene. Ask yourself: What is new? Michael Shurtleff
Comedy is acting out optimism. Robin Williams
There’s only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them. Michael Shurtleff
Acting is like lying. The art of lying well. I’m paid to tell elaborate lies. Mel Gibson
My job is usually to express emotion as freely as possible. Meryl Streep
If you enjoy this article, check out our collection of theatre quotes for thespians and theatre enthusiasts.
I’m curious about other people. That’s the essence of my acting. I’m interested in what it would be like to be you. Meryl Streep
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. Sanford Meisner
I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to free myself from any concern with my looks as they pertained to my work. Meryl Streep
Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly. Rosalind Russell
I believe in imagination. I did Kramer vs. Kramer before I had children. But the mother I would be was already inside me. Meryl Streep
Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.George Burns
All an actor has is their blind faith that they are who they say they are today, in any scene Meryl Streep
Acting is magical. Change your look and your attitude, and you can be anyone. Alicia Witt
The most difficult character in comedy is that of the fool, and he must be no simpleton that plays that part Miguel de Cervantes
Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found. Claire Danes
Actors think more with their hearts than with their heads William Esper
Acting is reacting. You can’t react if you’re not paying attention if you’re not listening. Reid Scott
Show me a great actor and I’ll show you a lousy husband. Show me a great actress, and you’ve seen the devil. W. C. Fields
Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on. River Phoenix
Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. George Burns
Acting is not about being famous, it’s about exploring the human soul. Annette Bening
The theater has never been any good since the actors became gentlemen. W.H. Auden
Good acting real acting, is impossible to spot. Do you ever catch talents like Robert Duvall or Kathy Bates acting? No. I defy you to show me where. William Esper
Actors die so loud. Henry Miller
Acting is a way of living out one’s insanity. Isabelle Huppert
I love acting. It is so much more real than life. Oscar Wilde
An actor is a fool for God. Gerardine Clark
If I wasn’t an actor, I’d be a secret agent Thornton Wilder
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a business. With it, it becomes creation. Bette Davis
