Eric Hoffer Quotes

Perhaps one never seems so much at ones ease as when one has to play a part.

I remember calling directors numerous times and saying, 'Oh, you should cast so-and-so instead of me. They're much better for the role.'

Well, it made perfect sense that I originally wanted to be an actor because every Sunday, we walked into church and we acted like we were the happiest, most together family.

There we were - demented children mincing about in clothes that no one ever wore, speaking as no man ever spoke, swearing love in wigs and rhymed couplets, killing each other with wooden swords, hollow protestations of faith hurled after empty promises of vengeance - and every gesture, every pose, vanishing into the thin unpopulated air. We ransomed our dignity to the clouds, and the uncomprehending birds listened. Don't you see?! We're actors - we're the opposite of people!

I became an actor so I didn't have to be myself.

The trick is not to become somebody else. You become somebody else when you're in front of a camera or when you're on stage. There are some people who carry it all the time. That, to me, is not acting.

Well, you know what they say in Hollywood - the most important thing is being sincere, even if you have to fake it.

This to me is the secret comedy of all author interviews, down through the ages, even the good ones in the 'Paris Review' and places. They're all acting. It's like watching a person in a play.

The boundary between real life and acting is hard to find.

I'm always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.

You scratch a preacher a little bit, and you'll get an actor.

The essence of greatness is neglect of the self.

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.

I'm not really an impersonator.

I think actors are attracted to the idea of other identities and concealing themselves behind some other identity.

Character roles only indicate that they're very different from who you are as a person, and for me, it's fun hiding behind characters that are so unlike who I am.

I'm not acting, but I am acting.

I find it very hard to play a part, then take it off like a cheap suit and become Mr Normal - Mr. Nice Guy.

That's what show business is, sincere insincerity.

Acting is like a Halloween mask that you put on.

I thought acting was showboating.

We all have our secrets, and we all have our deceptions. Acting, at its best, is all about deceiving people, and this makes it all the more interesting to us.

Sometimes you go to a show, and you see someone and think they're not there right now. They're performing, but it's muscle memory. There is no memorising some of the ways we put on a show.

We're entertainers. We're theatrical.

Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is - and not so much a matter of being real.