Dennis Quaid Quotes

Memorising my lines is actually something I do fairly well. I look at it a few times and it is pretty much there. When your shooting on TV, they do it in such a way that it is pretty easy.

I was delighted to have lines when they came - learning lines for film isn't a problem, but television is a little different, because we shot those shows the whole way through.

Soaps are the best. They really are. If you can do a soap, well, you can do anything. You have to learn pages of dialogue very quickly.

Being an actor is actually pretty easy if you can memorize lines.

Good looks may be enough for a heroine, but to become an artiste, you need at least a working knowledge of the language.

People ask me, 'How do you remember your lines?' That's nothing. That is the least of my concerns.

I left my mark on 'Dark Shadows.' One day I was doing my lines perfectly from Act 3. Everyone else was doing Act 2.

It was such a joy to be an actor on 'The Wire.'

I'm pretty comfortable on any set where I have something to do.

Not once in my life have I done theatre. Being on stage is not my thing.

I normally go through every single line as part of my warm-up before a show. When I'm working on a film or TV programme, there often isn't a rehearsal, so I tend to learn my lines much later. They are often shorter, too, so they're essentially just there.

Theater is a physical activity as much as anything. It's harder for me to learn the lines than it was 30 years ago. At the same time, I'll never quit working in the theater - until I can't memorize two lines back to back.

Because if I don't know my lines, I really don't know what I'm doing.

It's nice when someone knows their lines.

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.

Depending on the show, I've played a cop, a criminal, or a victim. So there's a range.

I'm an actor, and I like having attention, I guess. There's a reason I like being on stage. There's a reason I like being in front of a camera. It's that interaction.

Acting is not about knowing all this stuff; it's about character.

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

I think of myself as an actor.

Having done a lot of theater, I'm used to sustaining characters over long periods of time.

Just say the lines and don't trip over the furniture.

I'd never done a straight play before, never, and it was very hard work - really, really hard work. It was dense, really wordy, and I was determined to learn every word of it - not just skip over bits and pieces.

She said, and I'm not kidding, 'Is this a speaking role?' I wasn't quite sure how to answer that one.

Script for an actor is like a bible. You carry it with you, you read it over and over, you go to your passages.