Ben Kingsley Quotes

I think that most actors, and they're a very strange lot actors, very strange people, but I think that they attempt to keep in touch with the child.

For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment and renewal... has always been the work of other actors.

Every time I see a good play or watch a good movie, I have the same feeling I had as a child of wanting to be that person on stage or wanting to run through the forest with a big dress on.

As a child, I always liked dressing up and getting into character, and actors are lucky in being able to retain that playfulness, though we do seem to find it hard to grow up.

You've always got to have an imagination in the game we're in but it explodes on this. You get to try the costumes on before you start and feel the weight of them, which is great. But then you're opposite some of the greatest actors in the world and away you go. You find your imagination takes over without you really even thinking about it.

People often say that you should never work with child actors. I think that's all wrong. Children have not had the imagination kicked out of them by life experience and adulthood. So, they still are very much alive with that kind of magical thinking which enables an actor to believe they're in these circumstances and make them real to you.

I think acting is totally conducive to being a little kid, because kids are less inhibited and use their imagination.

For an actor to remain a child is rather important. It's a childlike, dreamy thing, acting, if you think about it. It's the sort of thing children fantasise about, playing cowboys and Indians in the street. I think that acting is just a highly refined development of that.

The child in us is always there, you know, and it's the best part of us, the winged part that travels farthest.

All children are natural actors, and I'm still a kid. If you grow up completely, you can never be an actor.

I took my play very seriously, and I got way, way lost in my play world.

I think that different actors go about their preparation differently, but when it comes to acting, I use my imagination.

Acting is all about truth and honesty, and the sensitivity that's capable of transporting you.

I fell in love with the art of acting back when I was 10 years old, actually.

When I was little, I put on plays for my family at Sunday dinner, and I would direct them and have all my cousins, my brother, and my best friends in it. I was a very imaginative and theatrical child and wasn't afraid of being in front of a camera. It was like make-believe to me.

For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.

Every time you get on a stage or in front of a camera, the whole exercise is about imagination. You're constantly depicting something that doesn't exist, and trying to find the reality of it. Once you settle on that premise, everything else is a matter of degrees.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

Being an actor is an extension of telling a story and I loved story telling as a child.

I was always very creative. I was always into acting and dancing when I was younger.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

The imagination is part of the arsenal that actors draw from.

I've never outgrown my childhood.

I still love finding the soul of the characters I play and defining who they are. This to me is my paint set, and the colors are always exciting to choose.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.