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Don't be afraid to be outrageous the critics will shoot you down anyway.

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
Afraid
Outrageous
Shoot
Anyway
Critics

More quotes by Laurence Olivier

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If you're an artist, you've got to prove it.
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.
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We used to have actresses trying to become stars now we have stars trying to become actresses.
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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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Scratch an actor and you'll find an actor.
Laurence Olivier
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Without acting, I cannot breathe.
Laurence Olivier
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Have a very good reason for everything you do.
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'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.
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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Autograph-hunting is the most unattractive manifestation of sex-starved curiosity.
Laurence Olivier
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Life is enthusiasm, zest.
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?
Laurence Olivier
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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.
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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Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
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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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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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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If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.
Laurence Olivier