Ryan Gosling Quotes

One of the reasons I took up acting was to learn to be more human, to get in touch with human emotions.

I don't think there's a certain part of a character I take with me. There's a certain part of me I leave with each character, though.

That's what I love about acting, you get to find little pieces of yourself in every character you play.

Sometimes you walk away from playing somebody and you think, "Wow that was far as from my own experience as I can possibly be." And sometimes you walk away thinking, "Wow. There are qualities in that character that I didn't realize I had." And those can be both interesting and uncomfortable.

I write to be the characters that I am not.

I think acting can bring you closer to yourself and help you understand other people.

I've done teaching and things like that because if you're acting, you're becoming other human beings, and you need to have time to find who you are as well.

I think that you can sort of have your own personal journey and you know, you can just kind of apply that to whatever characters you're playing.

At the end of the day, you have to find the humanity in you in each character.

Acting, I get to explore other people and other characters; with music, I get to express and explore myself.

It's really fun to put yourself into a character - into shoes you wouldn't normally be in.

For me, it's a voyage of self-discovery. I'm able to go on a set and to explore situations, personalities, people and characters that are close to me, or maybe not. Through going there and experiencing these different people and their situations, it helps me to get oriented and develop as a human being. So, acting is fundamental to who I am.

The great thing about acting is, because you're constantly playing other characters and exploring yourself because you have to find those other characters in yourself, you sort of broaden as a person over your life because you've been other people. So you can empathize with many different sorts of people. It's great in that way and I hope, therefore, as you get older as an actor, you not only get more interesting because you lived more, but you get a bit wiser as a person.

What I didn't realize about television was that's true of acting, as well. You have that space of time to develop who you are, and you can use more and more of yourself. The lines between that character that I'm playing and myself become more and more blurred and, after awhile, they just disappear, altogether.

I became an actor to escape my own personality. Acting is the most therapeutic thing in the world. You see, through acting you come full circle in your personality and, oh, what a grand time you can have along the way being wonderful people through your characters...I think all the courage that I may lack personally I have as an actor.

I'm sure there's pieces of me in all the characters I play.

I love my job, I love being an actor and stepping into the shoes of different characters and exploring their lives. It's enriched my life extremely. I've learned more about myself and the ways of life through being an actor.

I think there are parts of myself in every character I play.

I want things to be characters and not me. Why would I want to play me?

I've been working straight since 2003, so I might just want to take an improv or theater class. That excites me. I can't wait to do different characters - not necessarily the leading chick who gets the guy, but the weird, freaky cousin.

Whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you've never felt comfortable with, or never knew about.

One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.

You use your emotions to try and find them in the character that you're playing.

I think you always learn something in every character you play onstage, either personally or creatively.

Acting allows me to explore new worlds, to discover characters by delving into their lives, and ultimately to become someone else entirely.