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[May 1958, on playing Macbeth at age 30 and age 48] When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

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
Straight
Older
Playing
Age
Part
Young
Character
Macbeth
Men
Theatre

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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.
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Striving for perfection is the greatest stopper there is. You'll be afraid you can't achieve it. It's your excuse to yourself for not doing anything. Instead, strive for excellence, doing your best.
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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.
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Don't be afraid to be outrageous the critics will shoot you down anyway.
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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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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.
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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.
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I believe in the theater I believe in it as the first glamorizer of thought. It restores dramatic dynamics and their relations to life size.
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If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.
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Life is enthusiasm, zest.
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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?
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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.
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Scratch an actor and you'll find an actor.
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I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
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No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.
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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.
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Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
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Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest than an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor can possibly get to being a creator.
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If you're an artist, you've got to prove it.
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