A Quote by Michael Shurtleff

Often actors ask me if I think they should go on trying to be an actor. I have the same answer for everyone who asks: If you have a choice and could reasonably be happy doing something else, by all means go at once and do something else. Acting or writing or directing in the theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those who are so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

Michael Shurtleff

Quote Topics

Acting Actor Actors Answer Ask Ask Me Asks Be Happy Choice Could Directing Diseased Doing Else Everyone Go Happy Me Means Need No Choice Often Once Only Reasonably Same Screen Should Smitten Something Something Else Television Theatre Think Those Trying Writing

Quote Author

Michael Shurtleff
Actor
July 3, 1920 - January 28, 2007

Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is no choice.

Michael Shurtleff

In architecture, to do anything beyond object form is often treated as something extra-disciplinary - something outside the discipline that has nothing to do with art. So I'm making it clear that this is an artistic choice. It's not everyone's artistic choice. Some people should choose only to make object form because that's what gives them pleasure. But there are people for whom aesthetic pleasure comes from doing something else, and why would you deny that choice? It's another autonomous choice.

Keller Easterling

Sometimes what happens I think is that actors finish a movie and they go, oh my god, I'm never going to work again, even big huge actors, and so they'll take something thinking that something else will never come along. But for me, I freak out - because I'm a bit of a workaholic - the second I finish a movie going oh my god, what am I going to do, but I can start writing the next day so it doesn't force me to make a bad choice acting-wise.

Jonah Hill

If I'm given the opportunity of writing, directing and acting in the same film I would love to do it again. It's something I don't think that anyone else is doing in the country at this level... not many people are doing it in the world. I think if you check that out and find it's quite accurate, there's only a handful of people that actually are doing it.

Noel Clarke

Definitely haven't been doing writing. I'm so intimated by it now because I sort of put it to bed after I graduated, and I got so focused on acting. But it is something that I hope get brave enough - even if I just go back it for myself - it is something that is very close to my heart and I do hope that it's not something that is gone forever from my life. I guess that's just a choice; no one's going to that do for me, so I need to be the one to do it.

Lily Rabe

There comes a point when you have to be more than an actor, and doing something else that means a lot to me has actually made me a stronger actor. It's stimulated something else in my brain and heart.

Rory O'Malley

I have visions and ideas about different things. Other actors just inspire you, so writing is something I would love to do more of. I would really be interested in doing something in that vein, writing something for myself or someone else and directing for sure.

Emayatzy E. Corinealdi

We often feel paralyzed by choice and make no choice. But the thing is, no choice is a choice. If you’re not doing something about it, you’re doing something about it.

Chris Guillebeau

We often think of choice as a thing. But a choice is not a thing. Our options may be things, but a choice—a choice is an action. It is not just something we have but something we do.

Greg McKeown

I think from an actor's point of view, you always want something to play that's dramatic or something that feels like it could be very bold in choice. And of course, the boldest possible choice you could play at the end of a character's life is death.

Owain Yeoman

I did not think of writing as a career and I don't think that I did this ever really, but I think of writing as something that I could do, I should do alongside whatever else I was doing. It simply grew on me.

Chinua Achebe

I do not think everyone is created equal. In fact, I know they're not. [The Constitution] means that everyone should have the same laws as everyone else. It doesn't mean that everyone's as smart or as cute or as lucky as everyone else.

Fran Lebowitz

I usually have to find something where I go, "I have to do this." Sometimes you don't even know what the question you're trying to answer is, but you go, "This is something I need to explore and want to explore, and it's inside me in a way that I think I can do a good job with."

John Lee Hancock

As an actor, it's up to you to show that you can do something else. For me, the interesting actors don't always go where you expect to find them.

Lea Seydoux

But you're almost eighteen. You're old enough. Everyone else is doing it. And next year someone is going to say to someone else 'but you're only sixteen, everyone else is doing it' Or one day someone will tell your daughter that she's only thirteen and everyone else is doing it. I don't want to do it because everyone else is doing it.