Bette Midler Quotes

When I'm playing Big Momma, it's so much work that all I want to do, when I'm finished, is go back home and just relax and study my lines and get ready for the next day.

And, I'd never done Tennessee Williams, and I had done Broadway musicals, so it was a challenge.

When I was in high school, the drama teacher picked me to play Iago in 'Othello.'

Acting is real important to me. I love it, and it's something I care about.

In school, I was Martha in 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' I loved that.

The theater was my first training ground. It taught me discipline, dedication and appreciation of hard work.

For an actor, a Mamet play is definitely on the list of things you hope to be a part of before it's time to exit.

I learn the lines and pray to God.

I grew up in Georgia, and I started acting in plays when I was like eight years old, and I always memorized everyone's parts, not just my own, and I always memorized everyone's blocking. Whenever anyone wasn't there, I would always jump in. I was very hands-on.

Actors have to be there and do the work, and that's enough.

I always know my lines.

On film and TV sets, they let you sit down. Theater is like pushing a boulder up a hill each night. It's a fun boulder, but it's a boulder.

Theatre's a whole different beast to film. It requires a lot more of you.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

One thing I've really never had a problem with was memorizing lines. Most of the time I don't memorize the lines until we're on the set shooting the scene.

When they came to you for your line, you had to be ready and you had to get it in one.

I didn't want to be stuck in Dickens period dramas because then I would never know if I was any good.

I was studying at the Royal Academy of Arts, and I was playing the role of Dr. Ivan Chebutikin in Chekov's 'Three Sisters.' I was about 50 years too young for the part.

With theatre, you have to be ready for anything.

I think basically an actor is a salesman.

Reading great dialogue as an actor is such a rare privilege.

In school, I was playing old men and women, babies, Russian people, and all sorts of weird parts - a lot of comedy - and that's sort of like home to me.

I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

I have done all of the genres, and the dramatic role is my favorite.

There are a lot of roles in Shakespeare, basically. If I feel that the script is a movie, I would be interested in doing any role of Shakespeare's.