Elizabeth Marvel Quotes

There are times in my 30 years in the theater that I have come perilously close to losing faith in the one form of action I have in this life.

It doesn't matter whether it's television or films or the theater. I just have to believe in what I'm doing. If I don't believe in it, I won't do it.

Faith is not intelligent understanding, faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.

I really miss the rehearsal process of theater.

When I am rehearsing for a play, I try to read nothing that might distract my concentration from the work in progress.

For me, the most difficult piece is the one I'm about to make.

As an actor, you usually live your life with faith.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

I never studied anything about film technique in school. Eventually, I realized that cinema and theater are not so different: from the gut to the heart to the head of a character is the same journey for both.

In terms of the character itself, I can't really say that I find anything really difficult. I enjoy the character so much I don't perceive difficulty in trying to be him. It's just a matter of how do we get there.

I liked to act in plays when I was a kid, and then in college. But that's the last time I really acted. I always loved it. But my interests were more in looking at the whole, rather than getting completely swallowed up in a single part of the whole.

Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.

When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused.

Acting isn't a side thing - you have to live and breathe it.

Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned.

Being on a Paul Thomas Anderson film, the best decision an actor can make is to listen to Paul Thomas Anderson. Because he's probably not going to steer anyone in the wrong direction. I would always say go with your gut on any other movie set, but with Paul, I would say go with Paul's gut.

Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.

I do my best work when I feel conviction to say something through the character I play. Always I want to have integrity and not compromise that.

But today I felt different, today I forgot how long it takes to get into the skin of a character and I remembered it, because today I actually got into that skin and it felt so different.

All you have to do is just believe in what's there; then, the audience will, too.

I think poetry's always a kind of faith. It is the kind that I have.

In order to represent life on the stage, we must rub elbows with life, live ourselves.

Acting is contained - you act for three months, then leave it - but writing is the act of creation. Writing is dangerous.

Reason is an action of the mind; knowledge is a possession of the mind; but faith is an attitude of the person. It means you are prepared to stake yourself on something being so.

Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.