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Without acting, I cannot breathe.

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
Cannot
Without
Breathe
Acting

More quotes by Laurence Olivier

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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.
Laurence Olivier
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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.
Laurence Olivier
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If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.
Laurence Olivier
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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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What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?
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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My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.
Laurence Olivier
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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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Life is enthusiasm, zest.
Laurence Olivier
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Shakespeare - The nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
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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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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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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Autograph-hunting is the most unattractive manifestation of sex-starved curiosity.
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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The art of persuasion. The actor persuades himself, first, and through himself, the audience.
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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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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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.
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