Brit Marling Quotes

I love acting. It is so much more real than life.

As an actor, I feel like youre asked to live life as vibrantly as possible.

That's the thing about acting - it does have the feeling of downhill skiing. When it's really all going right, you know your lines, you know what's important to your character, you pick the strongest reactions possible to elements in the story. But then you let it all go and you're in the moment and stuff happens. It surprises you and it's super strong; it's like you're living life in a slightly heightened way in the time between "action" and "cut."

We don't really have a place in the universe, as far as on a timeline. But nothing else does, either. Therefore every moment really is the most important moment that's ever happened, including this moment right now.

I wrote 'My Name is Red' just to remember painting, where the hand does it before the intellect. When I'm captive to it, I'm a happier person. Kierkegaard tells us that a happy person is someone who lives in the present; the unhappy person, someone who lives either in the past or the future.

My life is every moment of my life. It is not a culmination of the past.

I'm a method actress in my songs, which is why it's hard to sing them.

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

I'm just dealing with what's happening, with what is. Joy, happiness, good, bad, all those terms are meaningless to me.

Acting is a really strange thing to do; it's very strange.

I'm big into Eastern concepts. The horror of life, the love of children, the whole phantasmagoria - it's all meaningless. Be still, and see what happens. All of life unfolds perfectly. You have to get beyond consciousness.

I'm not the first one to say it, but that time onstage is a heightened sense of present tense.

I am interested in suffering and, in particular, the Buddhist idea that in pain, you can find beauty.

To enjoy anything, we cannot be attached to it... What we usually try to do is capture any joy that comes our way before it can escape... We try to cling to pleasure, but all we succeed in doing is making ourselves frustrated because, whatever it promises, pleasure simply cannot last. But if I am willing to kiss the joy as it flies, I say, "Yes, this moment is beautiful. I won't grab it. I'll let it go."

I'm always in the elements, it seems like it's pouring rain on me a lot and there's crowds of people pushing me around, and it feels very real. Which is great as a actor, you don't have to come up with too much of it. I'm always amazed.

Actors are always a little high at work. Acting is their drug. So when you put the brakes on, they're naturally a little disappointed.

Acting keeps me alert to people, and life. I don't know, there's something about going to work early in the morning, and having to stay alert and concentrated. Maybe that keeps your mind alive.

Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.

There's a rule in acting called, 'Don't play the result.' If you have a character who's going to end up in a certain place, don't play that until you get there. Play each scene and each beat as it comes. And that's what you do in life: You don't play the result.

I'm an actor, so I love to be degraded!

The theatre-acting, creating, interpreting - means total involvement, the totality of heart, mind and spirit.

Which is worse, past or future? Neither. I will fold up my mind like a leaf and drift on this stream over the brink.

I've been in front of the camera a million times as a musician, and even directed a few music videos. So, I know a lot about spacing, focus, blocking, etcetera. So, acting isn't totally new for me. Still, I find it fascinating, because you actually get to be another person.

I've been acting my whole life, which people don't realize. I just haven't had the opportunities that I've had with my dancing.

There is neither Past nor Future. There is only the Present.