Geezer Butler Quotes

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.

I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.

I think overdesigning comes from a lack of editing. The strongest, most compelling, and most useful things in life are irreducible - love, truth, faith, honor.

I can't make a perfect record. When I try to, I bleed all the feeling out of it.

I don't like to intellectualize about my acting. I don't sit around and study the pages of a script over and over again. I don't worry whether the period is contemporary or three hundred years ago. Human beings are all alike. The main thing in acting is honesty, to feel the humanity and get to the essence of the character. You can't put anything into a character that you haven't got within you.

The more technique there is, the less there is

Perfection is not very communicative

In human character, simplicity doesn't exist except among simpletons.

With type as with philosophy, music and food, it is better to have a little of the best than to be swamped with the derivative, the careless, the routine.

Art lies in concealing art.

A man who shows no defect is a fool or a hypocrite, whom we should mistrust. There are defects so bound to fine qualities that they announce them,--defects which it is well not to correct.

For me, style is about quality, integrity and timelessness. It is free of trends but always feels fresh and new.

You can't play history and you can't play historical characters. You just have to reduce it to the ordinary.

Fine natures are like fine poems; a glance at the first two lines suffices for a guess into the beauty that waits you if you read on.

A simple maiden in her flower, Is worth a hundred coats of arms.

I used to need the character but as I've gotten older I need it less and less - I prefer to play some version of myself. To approach any acting job as me just being me.

Nobody is perfect, so get over the fear of being or doing everything perfectly. Besides, perfect is boring. Today, instead of picking yourself apart in the mirror or with friends over drinks, start seeing your "imperfections" as unique traits that give you character and dimension-because that's exactly what they are.

We shouldn't confuse singers and performers with actors. Actors will say, "My character this, and my character that." Like beating a dead horse. Who cares about the character? Just get up and act. You don't have to explain it to me.

My notion about any artist is that we honor him best by reading him, by playing his music, by seeing his plays or by looking at his pictures. We don't need to fall all over ourselves with adjectives and epithets. Let's play him more.

There is but one art, to omit.

The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is himself he is approaching, no other; and he should begin by turning resolutely away from all devices that are popularly believed to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments. The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

I've got a funny old face. Someone described it once, and I think they were being kind, as character. But I know what they mean! I've never been that conventional. I suppose maybe it means that my face can look different in different lights, so I just try and sort of keep it simple when I'm going out, to still look like me.

After you have written a thing and you reread it, there is always the temptation to fix it up, to improve it, to remove its poison, blunt its sting.

Artistry is to a large degree simplicity.

If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.' Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!