Quote

Don’t use your conscious past. Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don’t want you to be stuck with your own life. It’s too little.

Stella Adler

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Stella Adler
Age: 91 †
Born: 1901
Born: February 10
Died: 1992
Died: December 21
Actress
Drama Teacher
Film Actor
Stage Actor
Manhattan borough
New York City
Little
Conscious
Life
Create
Imagination
Creative
Use
Past
Belongs
Character
Theatre
Littles
Stuck

More quotes by Stella Adler

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An addict is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong.
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The actor has to develop his body. The actor has to work on his voice. But the most important thing the actor has to work on is his mind.
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Our heritage as actors goes back thousands of years, and we have to feel as comfortable in the clothes, and the language of Sophocles as we do in our sneakers.
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You have to do something. If you do something, you become somebody. Even a daffodil does something, has a profession. It gives off scent, professionally.
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Your curse is that you have chosen a form that requires endless study .... It means you have to read, you have to observe, you have to think, so that when you turn your imagination on, it has the fuel to do its job.
Stella Adler
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Emotions aren't doable. Actions are doable, and if you do them correctly, they prompt the feelings.
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It's not enough to have talent. You have to have a talent for your talent.
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Today the influences of your society pressure you to be successful before your time. They are pulling you down. They have pulled you down, you big, sweet, magnificent, young, potential artists. They have pulled you down so far that you are on the verge of destruction. Only you don't know it because you want to be a success
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The actor must be full of passion. If he's too cool he's better off as the manager of a company, not someone who appears on the stage.
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When you stand on the stage you must have a sense that you are addressing the whole world, and that what you say is so important the whole world must listen.
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Your job as actors is to understand the size of what you say, to understand what's beneath the word.
Stella Adler
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You have to get beyond your own precious inner experiences.
Stella Adler
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In life, as on the stage, it's not who I am but what I do that's the measure of my worth and the secret of my success. All the rest is showiness, arrogance and conceit.
Stella Adler
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The imagination is closer to the actor than real life-more agreeable, more comfortable.
Stella Adler
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The best author is a dead author, because he's out of your way and you own the play. Take what he has given you and use it for what you need.
Stella Adler
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The theatre-acting, creating, interpreting - means total involvement, the totality of heart, mind and spirit.
Stella Adler
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The play is not in the words, it’s in you!
Stella Adler
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It's not important to know who you are. It's important to know what you do, and then to do it like hercules!
Stella Adler
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You'll never really be great unless you aim high.
Stella Adler
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Acting can be the healthiest profession in the world, because it allows you to do things you can't do in real life. It allows you to understand more than just what life provides you.
Stella Adler