Marlon Brando Quotes

I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings.

A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

When someone's acting for a scene, they can fool the camera. But in everyday life, unless you're watching and censoring yourself every minute, or spending all your time in the company of ladies, what you feel is bound to show in your eyes.

You're always dealing with emotions as an actor.

In theater, you're playing characters. You believe you're somebody else, and you're acting.

We don't think of them as acting, but we take on certain characteristics based on where we function, and those relationships draw out aspects of who we are as people. And that's what acting is. Different parts draw out different parts of your nature.

It was always theater for me. But part of that came out of the fact that I was always acting out as a kid. I was the kid who didn't play well with others.

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

When I started acting, it was really the way for me to be able to communicate.

It's all performing; that's what we do in life. We talk, we look, and we hear, and we listen. Your life is a performance.

What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.

I've always had a problem showing fear on a film.

Actors are observers of human life, of human behavior.

I have always felt that acting in a film is very challenging in itself. But when it comes to performing live, I think that is more challenging.

That's what acting is: really make-believe.

[On being asked, 'Did you ever say that an actress needs to be able to laugh and to cry and that when you need to laugh you think of your sex life and when you need to cry you think of your sex life?':] No.

Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend, we're acting. Most people do it all day long.

I will do plays as long as they're interested in having me do them. It's the biggest opportunity to learn the most about how to act. Something I discover every time I'm doing one is how little I know about acting - how important the art of listening is, and how important it is to listen with your entire body. You can tell so much of a story with stillness, and a lot of that can be from really actively listening to your scene partner.

There should be a name for this, for the process whereby one knows one is being yanked and concedes it has been done successfully - that one is grateful to have been spun. In the theater, it is called the willing suspension of disbelief. That's what allows the play to make an impact on the audience: they have to be able to make believe that what's happening on the stage is really happening. Maybe to a degree it is a requirement for all political participation, all effective political communication, too.

As Michael (Chekhov)'s pupil, I learned more about acting. I learned psychology, history, and the good manners of art - taste.

It's always interesting to play characters who are vulnerable and how you display that vulnerability and what it's going to mean to people who watch it.

When I saw my first movie, I was fine, but I thought, "Oh, my heavens. It's not about just standing there on my mark and saying these lines. I need to actually act."

An Oxe is taken by the horns, and a Man by the tongue.

All you really have when you're acting is the confidence and your ability to manage and tell a story by creating a character.