English - Actor | May 22, 1907 - July 11, 1989
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
Laurence Olivier
CharacterManYouYoungYoung Man
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.
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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.
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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.
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The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.
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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.
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Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
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I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.
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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.
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Nine books have been written about me, and there's not a word of truth in any of them.
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A man's prime interest in life must be his work.
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I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.
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