Willem Dafoe Quotes

Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend, we're acting. Most people do it all day long.

Actors are always looking for ways to build a character.

What I've discovered is, really, acting is acting is acting. It's all the same. Seventy-five percent of the skills are the same in both media.

I've always been an actor. That's my job — I can be anything you want me to be.

The study of acting consists in the main of getting out of one’s own way, and in learning to deal with uncertainty and being comfortable being uncomfortable.

I detest acting because it is sheer drudgery.

Marlon once said to me about being an actor: Can you imagine going to work every day and pretending to be someone else?

I have always wanted to do a book about actors because I think that the death of a character is a tremendously emotional experience.

I don't really think it matters if you go into stage or TV as long as you do a bit of character work, really.

One of the greatest things I've learned, as an actor, was how to talk to actors.

I realized that I was a really, really terrible actor. I was like, "I'd better be myself."

I love acting and I love it in all its different manifestations.

I'm so not a performer, my drive to do [acting] is so different to other people - and I'm not discrediting that, they're born performers, they're people that you love to watch just be themselves. I like to be a little bit more in control. I like to make something.

Acting is a different discipline. On stage I'm free to say what I please. But the change is very good for ya.

I want to be an actor, maybe a comic actor but a real actor.

In theater, you're playing characters. You believe you're somebody else, and you're acting.

I really want to act and act in great roles, which have scope of performance.

That's what acting is: really make-believe.

Acting is where my heart is. I love acting.

You can equate acting to a tennis game: When you're playing one of the best, you get better.

Acting is a form of deception, and actors can mesmerize themselves almost as easily as an audience.

I would compare it to an actor. I drive myself into the character that later on is in the ring.

To go on being an actor, you need sheer animal energy. If you can't restock your energy, you have to hide your lack of it.

As far as being an actor is concerned, you have to have passion. If you're not bringing the passion of the character into the room with you, you might as well not come into the room at all.

I'm addicted to acting.