Michael Shanks Quotes

When you know who you are, you know who you are. That's the real dangerous thing in Hollywood, because they all want to create you and mold you.

Call me Ildar! Call me Abra-ca-da-bra! My name is my name.

Personally, I feel that in my own work I wanted to look programmed or impersonal but I don't really believe I am being impersonal when I do it. And I don't think you could do this.

With every character, I just bring something that I can make my own.

There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.

Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you're playing through your own experience - so we're all different.

You develop a voice and a process that's unique to yourself.

What eventually you find in comics is the only thing unique you can bring to a character who's been around for 80 years is yourself.

If you are going to be a character for the long-term you can't just imitate, you have to bring yourself to it.

I wanna take what I'm doing and create something around it as opposed to trying to fit into someone else's world.

All our forms are unique - movies, music and literature - and you have to leave the person who is doing it to do their best.

A big thing to me was to be able to be in a situation where I could speak my mind freely especially when it came to my character. Get the actual right feedback and not have too many chefs in the kitchen and allow me to be me.

My parents are both very stylish, so they always encouraged me to explore when it came to personal style. I went through a lot of crazy phases, and I'm still finding myself.

Make your own place. Make your own. The engine that allows you to make your own dynamic, your own universe. Why are you gravitating towards somebody else's universe?

You know how they say, "Find your voice"? That's your voice, in your pajamas. And it doesn't mean that you're going to publish it or print it or people are going to see you in your pajamas. It just means you are going to construct the foundation in your pajamas, in that voice.

Harmelody allows everybody to be an individual who does not have to imitate anybody else.

I'm trying to escape by forming my own kind of world. Basically, I'm trying to encourage others to do the same.

All I would tell people is to hold onto what was individual about themselves, not to allow their ambition for success to cause them to try to imitate the success of others. You've got to find it on your own terms.

Do not internalize the industrial model. You are not one of the myriad interchangeable pieces, but a unique human being, and if you've got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better.

I was born to stand out. I don't care whether or not people will find me attractive on screen. That's not why I became an actor. I know that more and more with each new role.

At first you're doing it for yourself, it's about what sounds good to you. It's about expressing yourself. Then you get comfortable as an artist and you find yourself and people get familiar.

I said to George Lucas, "I'd like a purple lightsaber." And he said, "Why?" and I said, "I just want to be able to find myself. I'm the most powerful Jedi in the universe, and I think it would be an interesting thing for me to have a different color lightsaber than anybody else."

You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.

Style for me is some one who figures out who they are. What works on them. What they feel good in and develops that. Develops their character. And the outer expression of their character is what is style.

To be oneself is a rare thing, and a great one.