Swoosie Kurtz Quotes

I can speak to actors in their terms. Knowing I was an actor, they relax. You can have the best shot in the world - but, at the center of it, you still need a good performance.

Working with a great actor is really educational.

I'm an actress who likes a strong, communicative director.

I'm an actor's director. I love it when talented actors can bring characters to life.

An actor puts himself in the hands of a director. And the director's first responsibility, obviously, is to tell the story, but the smallest thing that's not true reads on the screen. So if a director sees that an actor is not believable, he needs to help him become believable.

With acting, you are a small part of the creative process, and sometimes it is hard to feel like you are making an impact.

I think every actor would probably say that it's always a collaboration. And if you ask directors, they'll tell you that they expect the actors to bring something. They don't want to be thinking for everybody.

I am totally a director's actor.

I guess once you've been acting for a long time, you glean the great bits of good directors and the bad bits from other directors, and you know the way that you would like to be directed.

The better I am at observing moments in life, the better I'll be at showing them in my acting.

I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction.

Sometimes I think of movie acting as advanced pretend.

In a rehearsal room, your real resource as an actor aren't the things around you; your resources are your imagination and your director and the other actors. In those close quarters, your imagination and your skills are what you turn to.

There's no doubt in the world that directing makes you a better actor. Me, anyway. There's no doubt in the world that it makes me a more collaborative actor.

I don't think it's necessary to be an actor to get great performances out of an actor. But I do think it helps me as a director because I know what I like as an actor, and I try to get that to the actors who I'm working with.

The more and more I work with really great actors, the more it's about opening yourself up to what they bring.

I think people who are regarded as better actors must have better instincts because, at the end of the day, once they say 'action,' it's you who has to do it right. You can do all the research and preparation or none at all, but it's your instincts that tell you, 'No, I'll do it like this.'

The secret of being a great actor is a love of food.

Part of an actor's job, in my opinion, is adjust to the characteristics of the director and try to understand to how he tries to work.

As an actor, to go and see those shows - great plays like 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and Clifford Odets's 'Golden Boy' - it's so exhilarating. I'd personally love to perform the role of Jerry in Edward Albee's 'The Zoo Story.' He's a transient, lost soul, and an example of humanity at its rawest.

Anyone who has been given the gift of being opposite an actor who gives and gives, it just makes you better.

A large part of acting is just pretending. You get to work with these other great make-believers, all making believe as hard as they can.

As an actor, your life experience is just as important as studying.

Most of my training at graduate school was geared towards drama, so I feel good about it, and I can do it, but it requires a lot more work from me. I feel like with drama... well, with all acting, really, you need to honor the truth of the situation.

I'm really a director's actor. I rely heavily on a director.