Tom Sturridge Quotes

I've always believed that if you are precise in your thoughts, it's not the lines you say that are important - it's what exists between the lines. What I'm compelled by most is that transparency of thought, what is left unspoken.

So much of writing is about what characters don't say, and in the early drafts, sometimes things get overwritten.

Your internal dialogue has got to be different from what you say. And, you know, in film, hopefully that registers and speaks volumes. It's always the unspoken word and what's happening behind someone's eyes that makes it so rich.

Foreign-language books are sometimes more beautiful when you can't tell what's being said. It's like you ruin it by reading.

A story is told as much by silence as by speech.

When actors are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.

I like it when you read a script and there's the part that you show to the other characters and then there's the part that only the audience knows.

Nobody, I think, ought to read poetry, or look at pictures or statues, who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.

It's almost better most times to not talk in a scene. I think you can actually express a lot more without words.

The script will point you in certain directions and I go the opposite if I can. I try do do one thing and tell a different story with my eyes. I believe what's more interesting is always what's not being said.

I like acting with no lines because all of a sudden you're able to express things without always worrying about the text. It's great to have a great text, but there's a lot of stuff you can't say in words, and I think there's something really nice about good physical moments.

I'm an instinctive actor. I just see the part and play it. I'm more interested in what isn't said - the silences.

Everything we say has metamessages indicating how our words are to be interpreted: Is this a serious statement or a joke? Does it show annoyance or goodwill? Most of the time, metamessages are communicated and interpreted without notice because, as far as anyone can tell, the speaker and the hearer agree on their meaning.

There's timing in drama. You have to have a sense of rhythm. But the real thing that lends yourself to drama as opposed to comedy is a sense from the audience of whether there's more to it than you can see.

The greatest acting really is spoken without words, or at least I like to think that.

I've done a lot of Shakespeare over the years. You start to realise how the plays fit together; he's always using pieces from one and slotting them into others.

Chekhov directors and Chekhov actors love working on his plays because there seems to be no end to what you can find out about the micro-narrative when you're investigating a text.

I feel any actor can deliver a dialogue but real acting is how one reacts to the dialogue.

During the actual filming, I’m not really listening to dialogue. I’m watching to see if the actors are communicating something and expressing something. I’m just watching a conversation. You’re not aware of exactly what people are saying. You are aware of what they are INTENDING and what kind of feeling is going on in that scene.

No matter what you say in carefully chosen sentences, girls will detect both the spoken and unspoken messages.

We're fond of pointing out that we've known each other for over 25 years now and not once sat down alone to have dinner together. We pretty much avoid spending whatever time together that we can.

When I watch an actress say a line, I watch how they deliver the lines with gestures.

'Khamoshi' gave me the chance to prove that expressions can also say what dialogue could.

Body language and tone of voice - not words - are our most powerful assessment tools.

I've always worked a lot with silence in my films. It forces the audience to concentrate on what they're seeing, because silence is pure emotions. It has no logic; it goes straight to the heart.