Top 62 Quotes & Sayings by Laurence Olivier

A man's prime interest in life must be his work.

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.

Nine books have been written about me, and there's not a word of truth in any of them.

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.

I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

I can't think I've ever loved anybody quite as much... My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world.

The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.

I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.

Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

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.

Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time - every time I have a birthday.

I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.

'Richard III' is a really difficult play to film - it's involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I've ever done before.

We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.

I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor - to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

It took me two years to walk around a chair with ease; it took me another two years to learn how to laugh onstage - and I had to learn everything.

If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.

Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. You'll be afraid you can't achieve it. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.

Scratch an actor and you'll find an actor.

Life is enthusiasm, zest.

What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.

Without acting, I cannot breathe.

The humility to prepare and the self-confidence to bring it off.

Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.

In spite of a heavy disguise, a few days' growth on my face, dark glasses, a beret and one of William's jackets that fitted me not at all, as I emerged from a hotel in Lecce, a young fisherman pointed me out to his friends and said "Lavrenche Olivaire." It was not all that amazing; if you're not known in Italy, you're not known anywhere.

I'm rather bored by the subject - meaning me. It's a sort of a yoke, but at times you know, a yoke is a kind of comfort. And it's always there.

Don't be afraid to be outrageous; the critics will shoot you down anyway.

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.

Above all, you must remain open and fresh and alive to any new idea.

Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest than an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor can possibly get to being a creator.

You must have - besides intuition and sensitivity - a cutting edge that allows you to reach what you need. Also, you have to know life - bastards included - and it takes a bit of one to know one, don't you think?

Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.

I have to act to live.

I believe in the theater; I believe in it as the first glamorizer of thought. It restores dramatic dynamics and their relations to life size.

You think you're an artist; prove it

Acting, is not a profession for adults.

I am far from sure when I am acting and when I am not or, should I more frankly put it, when I am lying and when I am not. For what is acting but lying and what is good acting but convincing lying?

If you're an artist, you've got to prove it.

Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.

Don't waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence - doing your best.

[May 1958, on playing Macbeth at age 30 and age 48] When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

Acting is an everlasting search for truth.

[on whether he harbored any resentment at his forced retirement from the stage after he was fired by Britain's National Theater] I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare... An actor must act.

No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.

What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?

Use your weaknesses; aspire to the strength.

There is a spirit in us that makes our brass to blare and our cymbals crash-all, of course, supported by the practicalities of trained lung power, throat, heart, guts.

Work is life for me, it is the only point of life - and with it there is almost religious belief that service is everything.

In the great wealth, the great firmament of your nation's generosities this particular choice may perhaps be found by future generations as a trifle eccentric, but the mere fact of it . . . the prodigal, pure, human kindness of it . . . must be seen as a beautiful star in that firmament which shines upon me at this moment, dazzling me a little, but filling me with warmth of the extraordinary elation, the euphoria that happens to so many of us at the first breath of the majestic glow of a new tomorrow.

Autograph-hunting is the most unattractive manifestation of sex-starved curiosity.

If I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights.