Uta Hagen Quotes

I think Shakespeare had a lot to contribute with his understanding of the human condition.

Acting is usually regarded as a wholly narcissistic pursuit but there really is a hunger in me to unravel the human condition.

I think the better you know yourself as a person, the better an actor you can be.

I believe that curiosity, wonder and passion are defining qualities of imaginative minds and great teachers; that restlessness and discontent are vital things; and that intense experience and suffering instruct us in ways that less intense emotions can never do.

I'm insatiably curious about human nature.

I think you have to know who you are. Get to know the monster that lives in your soul, dive deep into your soul and explore it.

From early childhood, I was interested in understanding how the world worked, and assumed I would be some kind of physical scientist or chemist. But the truth was, I didn't know there was another kind of world, the inner world, that was just as interesting, if not more relevant, than what was going on in the outside world.

I write about moments, and I don't make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody's come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

I think you see in people's eyes what they've been through. Anything in their lives shows up in their eyes.

I am so enriched because so much has happened in my life. The way I can express myself is because of the life I have led. It's only when you experience life can you emote it.

I'm interested in writing that explores all sides of human beings.

It's interesting if you can talk about the large moments and also the small moments to understand the deepest complexities of a man by trying to imagine who they are.

I think shrinks are interesting to write about because you get to see what the character chooses to reveal, and what behaviors or stances the character tries out on the shrink that might not be part of the character's make-up outside of that room. It's an emotional test-kitchen.

Play is a uniquely adaptive act, not subordinate to some other adaptive act, but with a special function of its own in human experience.

An actor knows much more about a character than the character knows about himself.

The kinds of stories I want to be a part of telling are about delving into what it is to be a human being.

There is so much to be gained from adulthood! Feelings just become so much deeper. The feeling of sadness and loss is much deeper than when you were a kid, but the feelings of love and happiness have also so much more dimension when you get older... That is what's so hard and exciting about being a human being.

Ten years of character development affords you a lot. You get a chance to dig deeper and deeper and deeper into a person.

Emotion is a broad spectrum and I just been to a lot of sides of my own emotions.

I want to explore the range of emotions it is possible to feel.

Everyone should go inward, get curious about themselves, and investigate their shadows. It's one of the most important gifts we can give humanity. It's one of our most vital causes.

It is only with the passions of others that we are ever really familiar, and what we come to discover about our own can only be learned from them.

The true artform is being a human being.

‎Reading good literature is an experience of pleasure...but it is also an experience of learning what and how we are, in our human integrity and our human imperfection, with our actions, our dreams, and our ghosts, alone and in relationships that link us to others, in our public image and in the secret recesses of our consciousness.

With any character, I try to focus more on who the character is and how they got to be who they are.