Paul Dano Quotes

I like actors who don't have to think too hard about what they have to do to achieve their performance.

On the stage he was natural, simple, affecting, 'Twas only when he was off, he was acting.

Opera is full of trappings that make us go away from being human. You can't let them do that. You can't walk like you're in an opera! You have to make it real. You have to just be there.

Stripping away artifice - it's the constant standard I aim for in acting, to approximate life. People talk about being bigger than life - but there's nothing bigger than life.

I don't really like 'acting' - I like things to feel as natural as possible.

Most movies use older actors, but I thought, if I could just put kids on camera and get them to be themselves, what could be easier?

Zhang is a friend of mine: he said forget about acting and just do normal things in the movie.

As an actor, you know there are things you get asked to do that you do quite well, with less effort.

I don't believe in acting. I think that people in life act, but when you are on the stage or, in my case, also on screen, you have to be true.

I didn't get into this for fame, I genuinely didn't. I love acting, and I know that's a cliche, but I didn't, really, I was very naive when it came to the whole being recognized thing.

Working on 'Honeymoon,' an independent movie, was almost like working on TV with the space, and everything was stripped down - costume and hair and makeup. There was very little to hide behind, and you absolutely had to create the character from within.

I just like to keep things small and subtle and authentic, and ground everything in reality. So that is something that I feel is my strength as a director and I try to achieve as an actor.

I'm being myself when the camera is rolling.

I like everything to be natural... believable.

I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn't think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any other way to live.

My first wish is to be simple in my actions, truthful in my speech, honest in my opinions, and natural in my behavior. In other words, I want to be clean in mind, heart, and body.

When you are just you, without thinking or trying to say something special, just saying what is on your mind and how you feel, then there is naturally self-respect.

Always be natural. Putting on airs will make a giggle out of you. Be yourself and if you don't know something say so.

I don't think that there's much hiding that actors can do. If you're doing good work, you're showing a part of yourself to someone.

The thing that I really want to try and do is just live my life really openly and honestly. I think there's so much power in that, as simple as it is.

It's always best not to be thinking a hell of a lot while you're acting, because you want it to be as spontaneous as possible, not too intellectual. Just behaving and listening to other people who you're doing scenes with. I always like the latter when it looks easy, even though it may not be.

Some designers are so airy-fairy people can't connect with them. I hope people can relate to me, to a normal person who just happens to be a fashion designer, that people can take me as they find me. It's not the designer's job to care about what people think. Whatever else I've done, I've never tried to be something that I'm not.

I can get caught in many things but there is one thing I will never get caught in, and that is acting - because I don't act. On screen I am like I am in real life.

Avoid all affectation and singularity. What is according to nature is best, and what is contrary to it is always distasteful. Nothing is graceful that is not our own.

I like people who are being normal and being themselves.