Paul Giamatti Quotes

For me, an actor is a person who makes characters like a cobbler makes shoes.

I've always been very comfortable in a set environment. All the collaborating going on, seeing how actors work - it all excites me.

The most fun part for an actor is the writing and the story and the character. That's very fulfilling.

Film and stage are very different; I don't necessarily prefer one over the other. Every few years, I get a big itch to go back to the theater. To learn humility, to learn bravery and to remind yourself that the pistons that drive your craft are working on full power. And to remind yourself how badly paid actors can be.

I really love to act; I love everything about it. I've never had this addiction to being known. I mean, sure, if you go into acting, there's part of you that is saying, 'I want attention' but I was brought up to work to deserve attention, and it is the work, not the trappings that are important.

I don't sit around with other actors and talk about the pain and the magic of acting.

I still feel I belong to the theatre. There is nothing more challenging and exciting for an actor than performing before a live audience. The stage is the real testing ground for an actor.

There's a tremendous amount to be gained from being a performer, and being an artist, and being an actor.

I enjoyed acting and marveled that one could get paid for doing it.

As much as I can act, I don't have anything in me that yearns to be an actor - that sense of needing to be onstage, in costume, in character; that is utterly not interesting to me.

I never saw an actor and thought, 'Wow, I want to be like that.' It's just I wanted it to be part of my life.

Acting for screen is very different from acting on stage, and then obviously when you dance... everything is a physical embodiment. But the discipline is the same approach. You have to take both things seriously; nothing well-crafted is by mistake.

I truly love the rehearsal process, those eight hours a day! I really love actors.

I've never so appreciated what actors do and how strange it is.

I've learnt that there's acting for film, acting for theatre, and acting for an audition.

This art of acting is a process I love very much. It's an unbelievably fulfilling experience for me and I look forward to building upon my art in the years to come.

Actors are just entertainers, even the serious ones. That's all an actor is. He's like a serious Bruce Forsyth.

Directing has only increased my admiration and respect for what it is that actors do.

I'm an actor and my job is to interpret.

When you start off acting, it does seem very romantic, and the make-believe part of it all seems very exciting. It's only later that you begin to realize how fascinating the work is - that it's a bottomless pit, and you never get to the end of it.

I'm an actor, and I'm supposed to reflect real people.

An actor is an instrument. One needs to control them.

My style is an extension of acting and an outcome of some serious lessons I picked up learning when I did theatre in my early days.

I think people are always trying to demystify whatever acting is, so they want to know what your method is.

The actor should not play a part. Like the Aeolian harps that used to be hung in the trees to be played only by the breeze, the actor should be an instrument played upon by the character he depicts.