Dramatic Talent Quotes

When I was in school, in eighth grade, someone recognized something in me. She was an English teacher, and we read a play out loud in class, and she asked me to read one of the roles. I'd never done anything like that before, but something just lit up.

Viola [Davis] is one of the great actors of her generation. She has one of these moments in the theater that I don't even know how to describe.

I really like people who can do both drama and comedy and not some like middle of the road do both drama and comedy. I'm not talking about some guy who does these bland dramedies all the time. I'm talking about people that have done heavy drama and who have done heavy comedy.

I couldn't remember ever having seen a young man with such power, so many facets of expression, so much sheer invention as an actor.

Imagination! Imagination! I put it first years ago, when I was asked what qualities I thought necessary for success upon the stage. And I am still of the same opinion. Imagination, industry [hard work], and intelligence-the three I's-are all indispensable to the actor, but of these three the greatest is, without any doubt, imagination.

I want to do drama - no one really sees that. People just think I'm the funny guy and I can't do anything else, and that's just not true.

See what a good actress I am? I'm just typing over and over, "You're a good person, Mary Lynn! Hang in there! You can do it!"

I wasn't an obvious actress in any sense of the word.

I never will believe there is such a thing as a great actor.

There is a lot of acting that is on the table - precisely, good acting. The best movies of mine are the ones that really nobody saw. The Groomsmen, Playing By Heart and Seeing Other People are by far the work I'm the most proud of.

I feel like I was born an actor. I did not pursue acting until I was a bit older. But I got a taste of it at an earlier age in the UK.

I wanted people who are though of for their acting and not their gymnastic abilities or their muscles.

My father started out as a riveter, but he had the soul of an artist. He worshiped Shakespeare and had aspirations to be an actor. He claimed that from the first day he laid eyes on me, I was going to be this great dramatic actress.

The impulse to write the poem, that impulse is a great dramatic impulse. But hell, anybody could write a play. I do know this: all writers are not dramatists. You may be a great writer, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're a dramatist. Very few people have done both.