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We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

Laurence Olivier

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Laurence Olivier
Age: 82 †
Born: 1907
Born: May 22
Died: 1989
Died: July 11
Actor
Character Actor
Director
Dramaturge
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Politician
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Dorking
Surrey
Baron Olivier of Brighton
The Lord Olivier
Time
Performers
Politicians
Kings
Politician
Another
Stills
Still
Cardinals
Many
Playboy

More quotes by Laurence Olivier

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You must have - besides intuition and sensitivity - a cutting edge that allows you to reach what you need. Also, you have to know life - bastards included - and it takes a bit of one to know one, don't you think?
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I'm rather bored by the subject - meaning me. It's a sort of a yoke, but at times you know, a yoke is a kind of comfort. And it's always there.
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There is a spirit in us that makes our brass to blare and our cymbals crash-all, of course, supported by the practicalities of trained lung power, throat, heart, guts.
Laurence Olivier
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Work is life for me, it is the only point of life - and with it there is almost religious belief that service is everything.
Laurence Olivier
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The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.
Laurence Olivier
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Without acting, I cannot breathe.
Laurence Olivier
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Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
Laurence Olivier
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Have a very good reason for everything you do.
Laurence Olivier
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What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?
Laurence Olivier
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I am far from sure when I am acting and when I am not or, should I more frankly put it, when I am lying and when I am not. For what is acting but lying and what is good acting but convincing lying?
Laurence Olivier
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If you're an artist, you've got to prove it.
Laurence Olivier
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I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.
Laurence Olivier
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Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.
Laurence Olivier
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Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.
Laurence Olivier
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Life is enthusiasm, zest.
Laurence Olivier
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The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.
Laurence Olivier
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In spite of a heavy disguise, a few days' growth on my face, dark glasses, a beret and one of William's jackets that fitted me not at all, as I emerged from a hotel in Lecce, a young fisherman pointed me out to his friends and said Lavrenche Olivaire. It was not all that amazing if you're not known in Italy, you're not known anywhere.
Laurence Olivier
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No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.
Laurence Olivier
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I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.
Laurence Olivier
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My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.
Laurence Olivier