Liv Ullmann Quotes

Before college, I acted in my room, to classical music, because music tells stories. I'd put on a record and proceed, silently. I'd keep putting the needle back to a certain segment because I hadn't died well enough. I had to really, really feel dead. I'd love to do a death scene.

Doing a play is so fulfilling. Words cannot describe how I feel when I finish doing a play.

I thought as an actress I would be able to have broader emotional experiences, but then I quickly figured out that I wanted to think about tragic dramas, not act in them.

The work of acting, in and of itself, is something that is infinitely enjoyable.

My great love is the stage because I do feel like it's the place where, if you're lucky and everything is firing in the right way, you have the greatest shot at being successful. I don't mean by getting great reviews, but I mean by finding the core fo the person that you're playing.

If you do a scene the right way, you can go home at the end of the day and really feel like you accomplished something.

My job is usually to express emotion as freely as possible.

'Normal Heart' was my most transcendent moment as an actor.

The first time I ever screamed at someone was in a scene, and I'd never screamed at someone in my life.

When I was 15, I was asked to do 'Cyrano de Bergerac' at school, and it fundamentally changed my life. It's obviously an extraordinarily diverse and potentially electrifying part. It's a big leading part, and I hadn't really played anything like that before; I was the one doing the comedy side bit.

Acting is like free therapy! Trying to make people laugh or cry can be inspiring.

There are a lot of pros to doing a film, as far as it helping your film career, and it is completely different financially. But theatre is the only place where you get to actually be the character, and nobody is going to come around and change it later.

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

I would love to do more movies. I'd like to get into some theater, too, if I could, just to learn more. I want to do gritty performances that I'm proud of. It doesn't matter to me if four people see it or millions of people see it, as long as I perform in such a way that people go, 'Wow!'

I grew up wanting to be a writer for theatre.

I want to do theatre. I love theatre.

Acting is a form of confession.

You have license in front of the camera to do things, feel certain emotions that you don't get to in real life. It can be addicting.

Theatre just fills me up so much.

I was at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where I thought, in my naivete, I'd stay for the rest of my career. I'd thought I'd work up through the ranks and go from spear carrier - or in my case, the eunuch, which was several rungs below the spear carrier - to King Lear.

My parents lived, breathed, ate and slept theatre. Emotions were right on the surface. Growing up, the unreal had as much importance as the real.

I think when you're at your best as an actor, it is cathartic.

I was probably 14 or 15 when I was first on stage at school doing 'Measure for Measure.' I immediately felt it was a great way of expressing oneself at a moment when I didn't think I could express myself, really. I suddenly had access to this range of emotions and thoughts and feelings that were there in me. I was surprised by that.

Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.

I need to make sure that I'm taking roles that I feel like I can communicate through.