Elia Kazan Quotes

Through theater and acting school, I found a way to articulate myself.

The interesting thing about doing a play is to find a way to make it fresh and do it as though you were doing it for the first time.

As much as I know people love the method and what you can draw out of yourself, a lot of acting is very imaginative.

Acting is way of making yourself exist.

I'm an actor. I love to create.

Theater is about surprises and things that you haven't seen before on stage.

Acting is constant exploration.

I want to act, perform in my own way.

The biggest impact that acting and theater had was, of course, stage presence, but it also had a big impact on my writing.

I absolutely loved improv! I felt very much at home being onstage. It freed me to be all sorts of people other than myself. It was an escape from myself, if you will. I still love that creative freedom of improv and making people laugh.

I've always believed acting is an improvisational art form, even when not a single line is changed. I mean, the behavior should always be improvised. My favorite moments in any performance are when I'm just along for the ride; when I'm surprising myself. I know when I'm done and I think to myself, 'Gee, I didn't see that coming,' I've done well.

As a child, I was always interested in drama and performance.

The wonderful thing about theater as an art form is it's a purely empirical art form. It's all about what works. And every show, every production, is created anew right from the moment you go into the rehearsal hall.

I am an actor and I live in the world of pretend in my working capacity. I live in the world of my imagination.

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

Every time you get on a stage or in front of a camera, the whole exercise is about imagination. You're constantly depicting something that doesn't exist, and trying to find the reality of it. Once you settle on that premise, everything else is a matter of degrees.

Everything, I think, about acting is based on imagination.

I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me.

I've always performed. I've done plays at home.

I'm an entertainer, so in whatever form I entertain... The thing about being a rapper is that you have more control over your form, whereas with acting you have to compromise a lot.

The theater, for me, has always been a place where I'm free to be more creative, a place to sharpen my tools.

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

On some level, acting is the art of pretend, and you have to have a highly cultivated sense of imagination. You have to be able to see things that aren't there, no matter what aspect of acting, whether it's green screen, whether it's on stage, whether it's anything else, whether you're working on the radio.

I think acting is a gift.

I always wanted to tell stories and act.