William Hurt Quotes

Acting is a craft, and you need to study to be an actor.

I didn't study acting.

Reading scripts or commercial copy isn't a problem for me, so I can really focus on the acting instead of it being secondary.

My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them.

Just observing - that's the best skill of all for an actor!

Good acting is really excellent carpentry.

I was always under the impression that acting is an innate gift. One of the first things I heard them say at Koothu-P-Pattarai was that actors should realise the art of acting through their training.

I loved the idea that acting was something you could develop into slowly; something you could study.

Film acting is one of the only industries where you're criticized for working hard. In any other industry, it's considered a quality and something to behold.

As an actor, my main focus is finding good writing and attacking a good role.

I just love acting. Being in theater or being in television or film, I'm really living out my destiny.

Do theater. Because you'll develop a craft that you'll always have. It'll give you a chance to really learn how to act and you won't go into the world with a few measly tricks that will only carry you so far.

You can be in an acting class all you want, but you don't fully learn until you get off that stage and in front of a camera.

People take years learning how to act; it's a skill, not just a job. If I tried it out and thought I'd be OK, then perhaps I'd go for it, but it's not the kind of thing you can get into just because of your looks.

There is probably some great acting that goes on in movies from people who have never been on a stage, but if you are in for the long haul, you'd be missing an enormous part of what being an actor is if you're not part of theater.

Coming from theater, and having been to acting school, and done little, small Australian independent movies, a lot of the time, it's always about character.

Like any other actor, I draw on life experience.

When you work with actors, what you're hoping to absorb is good ways to be an actor as opposed to how to handle being famous.

Movie acting is about covering the machinery. Stage acting is about exposing the machinery. In cinema, you should think the actor is playing himself, if he's that good. It looks very easy. It should. But it's not, I assure you.

Of course, I love chats with various actors about the process and how they do it. To me, if it's not on the camera, if it's not there, it's not worth it. It really just isn't worth it.

I've learnt that there's acting for film, acting for theatre, and acting for an audition.

Well, what is acting but the study of human behavior? And that's so fascinating to me.

I took an acting class with Louise Lasser, Woody Allen's first wife and co-star in many movies. I've done some other indie films, if you look on the YouTube. I love acting - it's great.

Literature is an easier way to study acting, because then you can take any kind of spin.

Obviously an actor draws on his own experience.