I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; A stage where every man must play a part, And mine is a sad one.

What I do is just go over and over and over my lines and learn the script so well that I can just be easy and relaxed. That’s the way I always work.

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

It’s very rare that you get a director that lets you be creative and bring what you feel your character should do or should be.

While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the U.S. Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it.

When I started out, I didn’t have any desire to be an actress or to learn how to act. I just wanted to be famous.

I’ve done films where we don’t rehearse, and I’ve done films where we heavily rehearse. I like rehearsals.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

I’ve done auditions where the casting director is taking the paper out of my hand in the middle of reading.

When you’re supposed to be close and friends in the film, the moment you’re talking as friends off the set, it makes it that much better when you’re filming.

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

One good thing about acting in film is that it’s good therapy.

There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

On ‚Grey’s Anatomy‘ I wouldn’t care what I was playing – I would play a corpse, ‚cause I love it that much. It is deep true love, and it will never die.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

I love performing, you know, because, like I say, I’m a ham for this stuff.

Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

I’ve often felt depressed; everyone feels depressed.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

My mom always wanted me to be an actor. And I started going to theater and going on auditions young.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

You don’t know when you’re being watched. That’s one of the weird things about celebrity. It’s my least favorite part of acting, celebrity.

Drama usually has some sort of intense conflict.

I think, as far as branching out with acting, it would take something really right on the mark to distract me from music, because music is everything to me.

I was ashamed to admit I was hipped to the idea of acting. That’s why I started in with the props.

An actor is supposed to be a sensitive instrument.

I want to be a recording artist for my whole entire life. But Broadway is something I would come back to at any given moment. I love, love, love doing theater.

I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.

I prefer directing to acting. There is huge freedom that comes from being behind the camera. It brings a lot of responsibilities as well but is intensely rewarding.

This above all; to thine own self be true.

I’ve always felt toward the slightest scene, even if all I had to do in a scene was just to come in and say, ‚Hi,‘ that the people ought to get their money’s worth and that this is an obligation of mine, to give them the best you can get from me.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom.

Acting is the most minor of gifts. After all, Shirley Temple could do it when she was four.

Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

I actually started off majoring in computer science, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to stay with it. It was because I had this one professor who was the loneliest, saddest man I’ve ever known. He was a programmer, and I knew that I didn’t want to do whatever he did.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

You want to play another kind of character in another genre, and it’s been something I’ve been trying to do if I can in the career so far, and it’s something I hope to continue because it’s interesting to me and you get to do different things as an actor.

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.

Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.

I don’t feel pressure in a negative way. I like pressure. I feel excitement and calm at the same time. No pressure, no diamonds. I want pressure: pressure creates drama, creates emotion.

Now is the winter of our discontent.

To be, or not to be, that is the question.

I think all those actors from that generation, like Bogart – they were wonderful actors. They didn’t act. They just came on and they did it, and the characters were wonderful.

I didn’t like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions – the curtain was up.

I can’t act!

Michelle Pfeiffer hasn’t been finding a lot of work recently because she doesn’t like what a woman her age is offered. That’s a real double standard. You get Sean Connery, who gets older and older, still playing opposite young ladies, but it doesn’t work the other way around.

There’s nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and to the young, it comes with bitterest agony because it takes them unawares. I have had experience enough to know what I say.

To be honest, I never really considered myself to be too much of an actress. So, whenever I get the chance to do music, I’m always, like, just in it. It’s like, ‚Oh my God, I finally get to do this. I’m so happy.‘