Many famous actors and actresses are dreamers, activists, and pioneers. They became successful with hard work, sacrifice, and dedication. And they have earned a little wisdom along the way. These inspirational acting quotes will leave us thinking and smiling.
Inspirational Quotes From Famous Actors and Actresses
If you get a chance to act in a room that somebody else has paid rent for, then you’re given a free chance to practice your craft. – Philip Seymour Hoffman
Life is very interesting… in the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths. – Drew Barrymore
Always, always, always believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, then who will, sweetie? – Marilyn Monroe
If all the circumstances of acting are made too easy, then there’s no grain of sand to make the pearl. – Peter Sarsgaard
I think if you live in a black-and-white world, you’re gonna suffer a lot. I used to be like that. But I don’t believe that anymore. – Bradley Cooper
There is still a lot to learn and there is always great stuff out there. Even mistakes can be wonderful. – Robin Williams
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
I don’t believe in happy endings, but I do believe in happy travels, because ultimately, you die at a very young age, or you live long enough to watch your friends die. It’s a mean thing, life. – George Clooney
Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength. – Arnold Schwarzenegger
If you risk nothing, then you risk everything. – Geena Davis
Be nice to people on the way up, because you may meet them on the way down. – Jimmy Durante
Take a deep breath, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. – Frank Sinatra
From now on we live in a world where man has walked on the Moon. It’s not a miracle; we just decided to go. – Tom Hanks
My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier. – Anthony Hopkins
I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want … I believe I can create whatever I want to create. – Will Smith
You’re not going there to get a job. You’re going there to present what you do. – Bryan Cranston
It’s never too late – never too late to start over, never too late to be happy. – Jane Fonda
Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today. – James Dean
Goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency. – Denzel Washington
You’re only human. You live once and life is wonderful, so eat the damned red velvet cupcake. – Emma Stone
Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. – Bruce Lee
Giving voice to characters that have no other voice—that’s the great worth of what we do. – Meryl Streep
Sometimes you can have the smallest role in the smallest production and still have a big impact. – Neil Patrick Harris
You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy. Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae. – Paul Walker
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
I don’t say: ‘can’t do that’, ‘won’t do that’. I’ve never thought in that way about work. The genuine truth, and I do think about this a lot, is that I’m one of the least competitive people you’ll ever meet. Except with myself. – Daniel Craig
Success isn’t always about ‘Greatness’, it’s about consistency. Consistent, hard work gains success. Greatness will come. – Dwayne Johnson
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
Never worry about bad press: All that matters is if they spell your name right. – Kate Hudson
If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me. – Angelina Jolie
If you’re an actor, even a successful one, you’re still waiting for the phone to ring. – Kevin Bacon
Eventually stardom is going to go away from me. It goes away from everybody and all you have in the end is to be able to look back and like the choices you made. – Matt Damon
Chemistry can be a good and bad thing. Chemistry is good when you make love with it. Chemistry is bad when you make crack with it. – Adam Sandler
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
I was made to be a perfectionist at everything I did. Everything was more important than what I wanted. – Dennis Quaid
Think of how stupid the average person is and realize half of them are stupider than that. – George Carlin
Without wonder and insight, acting is just a business. With it, it becomes creation. – Bette Davis
We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap. – Anthony Hopkins
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer. – Jim Carrey
It doesn’t matter who you are. What matters is your plan. – Tom Hardy
If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it. – Denzel Washington
We think too much and feel too little. – Charlie Chaplin
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power. – Clint Eastwood
Sometimes you can’t see yourself clearly until you see yourself through the eyes of others. – Ellen DeGeneres
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
We all keep dreaming, and luckily, dreams really do come true. – Katie Holmes
This is your time and it feels normal to you, but really, there is no normal. There’s only change and resistance to it and then more change. – Meryl Streep
An actor is at most a poet and at least an entertainer. – Marlon Brando
Whatever art form you’re working in, it’s crucial to see it clearly, to feel it clearly, and not to worry about the results, or how someone else will see it. – Omar Epps
Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema has the power to make you not feel lonely, even when you are. – Tom Hanks
A dame that knows the ropes isn’t likely to get tied up. – Mae West
I am just too much. – Bette Davis
Overcome the notion that you must be regular. It robs you of the chance to be extraordinary. – Uta Hagen
If you are blessed, you are blessed, whether you are married or single. – Greta Garbo
It [prejudice] is such a waste. It makes you logy and half-alive. It gives you nothing. It takes away. – Dorothy Dandridge
I believe there’s an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts. – Sylvester Stallone
A 41-inch bust and a lot of perseverance will get you more than a cup of coffee – a lot more. – Jayne Mansfield
A lot of people give up just before they’re about to make it. You know you never know when that next obstacle is going to be the last one. – Chuck Norris
My weaknesses… I wish I could come up with something. I’d probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they’re the same thing. – Al Pacino
Enemies are so stimulating. – Katherine Hepburn
Egotism – usually just a case of mistaken nonentity. – Barbara Stanwyck
I’ve been through it all, baby, I’m mother courage. – Elizabeth Taylor
Great Quotes by Actors and Actresses on Life, Love, Success, and Happiness
If there’s any message to my work, it is ultimately that it’s OK to be different, that it’s good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color. – Johnny Depp
If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn’t worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death. – Morgan Freeman
When we live our lives every day, we’re met by opportunities, and most of us don’t even recognize them. – Scarlett Johansson
I’ve always approached things with hunger and just enough fear. Plenty of confidence, you know, but just enough fear to work extra hard. Paralyzing fear does nothing, but the kind of fear that makes you nervous enough to really be aware and focused? I like that kind of fear. – Queen Latifah
All you really have in the end are your stories. – Burt Reynolds
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
Here’s how I’ve lived my life: I’ve never been late to a set. I make films I believe in. I feel privileged to be able to do what I love. – Tom Cruise
If you’re the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams, you’ve gotta be resourceful to make sure you can do it. I came out to California when I was 21, thinking my New York credentials would take me all the way. I came back home a year later all dejected and a failure. – Vin Diesel
Why don’t they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years we will have the smartest people on earth. – Will Rogers
You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it. I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness. – Denzel Washington
I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best. – Marilyn Monroe
Things are never so bad they can’t be made worse. – Humphrey Bogart
I’m letting no man handle my bank account. – Hattie McDaniel
Look at me and tell me if I don’t have Brazil in every curve of my body. – Carmen Miranda
I am not a has-been. I am a will be. – Lauren Bacall
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others. – Audrey Hepburn
Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it. – Brigitte Bardot
I’m not young. What’s wrong with that? – Vivien Leigh
I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man. – Jean Harlow
I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up. – Ingrid Bergman
It’s best not to stare at the sun during an eclipse. – Jeff Goldblum
Everything you see I owe to spaghetti. – Sophia Loren
A gentleman is simply a patient wolf. – Lana Turner
I don’t fear death because I don’t fear anything I don’t understand. When I start to think about it, I order a massage and it goes away. – Hedy Lamarr
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. – Judy Garland
Next time I see you, remind me not to talk to you. – Groucho Marx
He who has the gold makes the rules. – Tyler Perry
As a young man I prayed for success. Now I just pray to be worthy of it. – Brendan Fraser
I believe you make your day. You make your life. So much of it is all perception, and this is the form that I built for myself. I have to accept it and work within those compounds, and it’s up to me. – Brad Pitt
Eighty percent of success is showing up. – Woody Allen
The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead. – Jack Nicholson
I care about the connection with the audience. Film is such a powerful medium. Movies can change the way people think. – Nicolas Cage
There are two dilemmas that rattle the human skull: How do you hang on to someone who won’t stay? And how do you get rid of someone who won’t go? – Danny DeVito
I’m not hungry for success. I am only hungry for good work, and that is how it is with most superstars. Every day I tell myself how fortunate I am to be where I am. – Akshay Kumar
There are no regrets in life. Just lessons. – Jennifer Aniston
Life’s tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid. – John Wayne
he best acting is instinctive. It’s not intellectual, it’s not mechanical, it’s instinctive. – Craig MacDonald
Famous Actor Quotes
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances. – Sanford Meisner
The only failure is not to try. – George Clooney
The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results. – James Dean
You’ve gotta believe in yourself, and you just have to work harder at it than you’ve ever worked at anything before in your life. And if you keep doing that and keep believing in yourself, great things do happen. – Kate McKinnon
Don’t be afraid to fail. It’s not the end of the world and in many ways it’s the first step toward learning something better and getting better at it. – Jon Hamm
Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors. – Constantin Stanislavski
The best way to guarantee a loss is to quit. – Morgan Freeman
After many years of self-flagellation, I’ve realized that beating myself up doesn’t get me anywhere. – Chris Pine
Your regrets aren’t what you did, but what you didn’t do. So I take every opportunity. – Cameron Diaz
If I get rejected for a part, I pick myself up and say ‘OK not today, maybe tomorrow I’ll get this other part or something’. – Liam Neeson
I’ve come across many actors like me who didn’t have a backup. That drive and will made it work. – Clive Owen
I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it. – Denzel Washington
I’m a big believer in ‘never say never’. – Jim Parsons
Normal is nothing more than a cycle on a washing machine. – Whoopi Goldberg
I’ve learned it’s important not to limit yourself. You can do whatever you really love to do, no matter what it is. – Ryan Gosling
Be so good they can’t ignore you. – Steve Martin
You have to be totally tough to deal with all those times when you’re being turned down, and then really soft in order to access your character’s emotions. – Felicity Jones
Nothing is impossible; the word itself says, ‘I’m possible!’ – Audrey Hepburn
The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence. – Blake Lively
I’m continually trying to make choices that put me against my own comfort zone. As long as you’re uncomfortable, it means you’re growing. – Ashton Kutcher
I was armored enough to come out to Hollywood. And I knew that I would get told ‘no’ a million times. – Taraji Henson
I live my life through fear. If I’m afraid of it, I’ll do it just so I’m not afraid of it anymore. – Jeremy Renner
An actor is a fool for God. – Gerardine Clark
Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend, we’re acting. Most people do it all day long.
Acting Quotes
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life. – Bette Davis
Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there. – Meryl Streep
Acting isn’t something you do. Instead of doing it, it occurs. If you’re going to start with logic, you might as well give up. You can have conscious preparation, but you have unconscious results. – Lee Strasberg
Stop explaining yourself. Shut up and act! – Craig MacDonald
Study, find all the good teachers and study with them, get involved in acting to act, not to be famous or for the money. Do plays. It’s not worth it if you are just in it for the money. You have to love it. – Philip Seymour Hoffman
Acting is standing up naked and turning around very slowly. – Rosalind Russell
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
If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. – Bruce Lee
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
There is a kind of invisible thread between the actor and the audience, and when it’s there it’s stunning and there is nothing to match that. – Maggie Smith
Creating relationship is the heart of acting. It is basic. It is essential. – Michael Shurtleff
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
When you do something that people respond to, and then you start altering the blueprint for what worked, it’s pretty fear-inducing. But sometimes, you have to do that, in order to push the boundaries. – Rami Malek
Acting is magical. Change your look and your attitude, and you can be anyone. – Alicia Witt
If you really do want to be an actor who can satisfy himself and his audience, you need to be vulnerable. – Jack Lemmon
An actor has to burn inside with an outer ease. – Michael Chekhov
Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. – George Burns
I love acting. It is so much more real than life. – Oscar Wilde
