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column, 21 June 1972, when she was 76 The terrible thing about acting in the theatre is that you have to do it at night. – Katherine Hepburn New York Times, 16 January 1976 Acting isn’t really a very high class way to make a living, is it? – Katherine Hepburn Life’s what’s important. Walking, houses, family, birth and pain and joy. Acting’s just waiting for the custard pie. That’s all. – Katherine Hepburn Acting is painting, not photography. – Derek Jacobi Sunday Times, 24 May 1992 It is a most unholy trade. – Henry James Acting more than any other art is a demonstration of rebellion against the mundanity of everyday existence. – Micheal MacLiammoir I think the whole business of being an actor and being part of entertainment, whether it be TV shows or stage shows or movies, is noble. You leam about everything, and you’re involved in something. You know what it is – it’s acting. Look at the doctors and the lawyers. They think they’re real people. – Walter Matthau, 1979; quoted in J. Green, A Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations, 1982 Acting is therefore the lowest of all the arts, if it is an art at all. – George Moore Mummer Worship The whole matter of acting is enveloped with written and oral bosh. – George Jean Nathan Encyclopaedia of the Theatre, 1940 Acting should be seen and not written about. – Ibid. If somebody asked me to put in a sentence what acting was, I should say that acting was the art of persuasion. – Laurence Olivier quoted in K. Tynan, Curtains, 1961 It does seem sometimes 2
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that acting it hardly the occupation of an adult. – Laurence Olivier, 1970 Acting – the ability to keep an audience from coughing. – Ralph Richardson Observer, 1947 Acting is like roller skating – once you know how to do it, it is neither stimulating nor exciting. – George Sanders quoted in J. Green, A Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations, 1982 Highly paid casual labour of the most casual sort. – George Bernard Shaw ACTORS The aim of an actor should not be the part, but the whole. – Peggy Ashcroft, 1961 A good French actor is merely a French barrister who has missed his vocation. – Arnold Bennett Journals 1896–1928 An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow. – Edwin Booth An actor is a guy who, if you ain’t talking about him, ain’t listening. – Marlon Brando Observer, 1956 Shouting in the evening. – Patrick Troughton (definition of acting) I love acting. It is so much more real than life. – Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891 An actor is something less than a man, while an actress is something more than a woman. – Richard Burton The better the actor the more stupid he is. – Truman Capote Acting is like painting pictures on bathroom tissues. Ten minutes later you throw them away and they are gone. – Shelley Winters The Saturday Evening Post, 1962 They are a race apart, doomed to go through life pretending to be someone else. – R. F. Delderfield He speaks all his words 3

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column, 21 June 1972, when she was 76

The terrible thing about acting in the theatre is that you have to do it at night. – Katherine Hepburn New York Times, 16 January 1976

Acting isn’t really a very high class way to make a living, is it? – Katherine Hepburn

Life’s what’s important. Walking, houses, family, birth and pain and joy. Acting’s just waiting for the custard pie. That’s all. – Katherine Hepburn

Acting is painting, not photography. – Derek Jacobi Sunday Times, 24 May 1992

It is a most unholy trade. – Henry James

Acting more than any other art is a demonstration of rebellion against the mundanity of everyday existence. – Micheal MacLiammoir

I think the whole business of being an actor and being part of entertainment, whether it be TV shows or stage shows or movies, is noble. You leam about everything, and you’re involved in something. You know what it is – it’s acting. Look at the doctors and the lawyers. They think they’re real people. – Walter Matthau, 1979; quoted in J. Green, A Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations, 1982

Acting is therefore the lowest of all the arts, if it is an art at all. – George Moore Mummer Worship

The whole matter of acting is enveloped with written and oral bosh. – George Jean Nathan Encyclopaedia of the Theatre, 1940

Acting should be seen and not written about. – Ibid.

If somebody asked me to put in a sentence what acting was, I should say that acting was the art of persuasion. – Laurence Olivier quoted in K. Tynan, Curtains, 1961

It does seem sometimes

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