Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four. Katharine Hepburn
The secret of acting is sincerity. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. George Burns
The old-fashioned idea that the simple piling up of experiences, one on top of another, can make you an artist, is, of course, so much rubbish. If acting were just a matter of experience, then any busy harlot could make Garbo’s Camille pale. Helen Hayes
Acting is a question of absorbing other people’s personalities and adding some of your own experience. Paul Newman
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult. Laurence Olivier
Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is, and not so much a matter of being real. Laurence Olivier
I must say acting was good training for the political life which lay ahead for us. Nancy Reagan
A lot of acting is paying attention. Robert Redford
Acting isn’t really a creative profession. It’s an interpretative one. Paul Newman
I can’t stand an actor or actress who tells me acting is hard work. It’s easy work. Anyone who says it is hard never had to stand on his feet all day dealing blackjack. Dean Martin
Lead the audience by the nose to the thought. Laurence Olivier
If a face like Ingrid Bergman’s looks at you as though you’re adorable, everybody does. You don’t have to act very much. Humphrey Bogart
Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it. Laurence Olivier
Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant. Glenda Jackson
Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised. Roger Moore (on his own acting technique)
Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing. Sir Ralph Richardson
Acting is a form of confession. Tallulah Bankhead
Insecurity, commonly regarded as a weakness in normal people, is the basic tool of the actor’s trade. Miranda Richardson
Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It’s a bum’s life. The principle benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis. Marlon Brando
You spend all your life trying to something they put people in asylums for. Jane Fonda