"Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

-Sanford Meisner

"Yes, years of compromise and disappointment have added depth to my acting."

-Rufus Sewell

"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

"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."

-Alan Rickman

"The only way I can move past the absurdity of what I do, is to commit to the point of absurdity."

-Jake Gyllenhaal

"If any of the work, that any of us do, contributes to the stretching of culture, the stretching of boundaries of empathy that’s expected of an audience… that’s the holy grail."

-Riz Ahmed

"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

"I think you should take your job seriously, but not yourself. That is the best combination."

-Judi Dench

"When I ask if you’re talented, you’d better say yes. Not in a boasting sort of way, just a quiet confidence: ‘Yes, I’m talented. I know I am.’ You need that. And you need persistence and you need patience, and that’s not contradictory."

—Bryan Cranston

"Vomit first. Then try to make something pretty with it."

-Tatiana Maslany

"It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn't, and when it does, we may well reject it."

-Spencer Tracy

"Vomit first. Then try to make something pretty with it."

-Tatiana Maslany

"It’s tough, acting. you have to walk two lines of a tightrope. there’s the all consuming fear of failure… and there’s also confidence – you have to be confident to try new things – And they fight each other all the time."

-Jessica Chastain

"To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication."

-Marlon Brando

"Listening is not merely hearing. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is active."

-Michael Shurtleff

"Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music or a book can make a difference. It can change the world."

-Alan Rickman

"Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself."

-Rodney Dangerfield

"You put your nightmares up there, you put your dreams up there and people can see them better because they can stand outside of it and recognise themselves inside it."

-Holly Hunter

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself."

-Mikhail Baryshnikov

"Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself."

-Rodney Dangerfield