Home / Authors / Al Pacino Books

Al Pacino

Al Pacino Books

Film actor

Al Pacino, born on April 25, 1940, is a renowned American film actor. He is best known for his outstanding performances in classic films such as 'The Godfather' series and 'Dog Day Afternoon'. Pacino's acting has been highly acclaimed, earning him multiple Academy Award nominations for Best Actor.

Al Pacino

A source page for quotes linked to Al Pacino.

0 quotes

Sonny Boy: A Memoir

A source page for quotes linked to Al Pacino.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“Every few blocks were vacant lots where victory gardens had been planted at the height of the war. By then, they were wrecked and full of debris. Once in a while, when you looked down at the sidewalk along the lots, you’d see a blade of grass growing up out of the concrete. That’s what my friend, the acting teacher Lee Strasberg, once called talent: a blade of grass growing up out of a block of concrete.”

Talent Garden Grass Concrete Sidewalk Bronx Debris Al Pacino Lee Strasberg South Bronx

Book:Sonny Boy: A Memoir

Source: Sonny Boy: A Memoir

“Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life.”

Opinion Personal Life

Author:Al Pacino

“The difference between the actor and the painter is that the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act.”

Order Actors Differences Watches Painter

Author:Al Pacino

“Sometimes the only way you can get an audience is at an audition.”

Way Sometimes Audience Auditions

Author:Al Pacino

“When you're reading some of the great plays, when you do what I call "taking up with a writer," something happens.”

Play Happens Reading Things Happen

Author:Al Pacino

“The literal, basic thing of the stage is really like a magnet. It brings me back to earth.”

Earth Stage Literal Magnet Basic Things

Author:Al Pacino

“Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.”

Knows Feels Persons Character Too Much Illusion

Author:Al Pacino

“[Marlon] Brando's a giant on every level. When he acts it's as if he landed from another planet. A planet where they produce great actors.”

Ifs Actors Levels Produce Planets Giants Great Actors Brando

Author:Al Pacino

“I always had this thing, when I was younger especially, I didn't want to do movies that much. I found they took a lot out of you and they were exhausting for me in a lot of ways.”

Way Want Found Exhausting

Author:Al Pacino

“That's the way to live - around people who care. It may be a tough ride, but something is going to come out of it.”

People Way May Care Tough Who Cares Way To Live

Author:Al Pacino

“If you have the opportunity to meet someone as an actor, it's just great fodder for you. It's wonderful source stuff that we die for.”

Ifs Dies Actors Opportunity Stuff Wonderful Source Fodder

Author:Al Pacino

“I don't regret anything. I feel like I've made what I would call mistakes. I picked the wrong movie, or I didn't pursue a character, but everything you do is part of you and you get something from it.”

Feels Made Character Mistake Regret Pursue Don't Regret Don't Regret Anything

Author:Al Pacino

“If I find something and feel as though I can contribute to [it] in a way and feel I'm in it, whatever that means, I'm expressing something that I feel is a way to exercise my talent and help communicate a role as a human being in a movie, I will do that.”

Ifs Way Feels Humans Mean I Can Helping Human Beings Roles Talent Exercise Communicate

Author:Al Pacino

“I don't talk politics and I don't talk philosophy or anything like that, but if you look at my work, you might get an expression of me as a person.”

Ifs Looks Persons Philosophy Might Expression

Author:Al Pacino

“I have a life and do a lot of things, and so far my work has been my life. If I was a painter no one would question me about my age. I'm an artist, I hate saying that.”

Ifs Has Beens Age Artist Hate I Hate Painter

Author:Al Pacino

“We live in a world where the more you're working, the more things you do. It's a workaday world.”

Author:Al Pacino

“I personally think if you're given four months instead of four weeks on a play, with the people who want to work that way, the play will invariably be different and stronger, and much more fulfilling and richer on all counts. There's no doubt in my mind about it.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Want Mind Different Play Given Doubt Four Week Months Stronger No Doubt Fulfilling

Author:Al Pacino

“If something is working, don't fix it. Keep going. Go with the glow.”

Author:Al Pacino

“Being the actors of the craft, the trade, one of the big things you do and you learn is about repeating. There is something to the repeats. I think that is part of what is healthy to young actors. Get out and learn something just through doing that, repeating.”

Thinking Bigs Young Actors Healthy Trade Crafts Repeats Big Things Young Actors

Author:Al Pacino

“I wouldn't be interested in [nowadays] television simply because I think it goes too fast. Except if something was maybe a play on television or some great television script.”

Ifs Thinking Play Television Scripts

Author:Al Pacino

“Failure's relative. I've always felt, even early on, if I lose the freedom to fail, something's not right about that. It's how you treat failure, too. There's something to learn from it. I've had movies that have failed colossally, so you kind of analyze your failures: What kind of failure was it? A failure because it's misunderstood by others? A failure because you misunderstood it yourself?”

Ifs Kind Felt Loses Failing Treats Relative Misunderstood

Author:Al Pacino

“I want to be interesting in an interview just as much as I want to do well in a part.”

Want Wells Interesting Interviews

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I was playing a part of someone dealing dope on a street corner - and there was a guy actually dealing heroin right there. I looked at him, he looked at me, and I got real confused.”

Real Guy Streets Corners Confused Heroin Dope Street Corners

Author:Al Pacino

“I turned down a lot of films before I made my first one. I knew that it was time for me to get into movies.”

Firsts Made Film Turned Down

Author:Al Pacino

“A lot of actors choose parts by the scripts, but I don't trust reading the scripts that much. I try to get some friends together and read a script aloud. Sometimes I read scripts and record them and play them back to see if there's a movie. It's very evocative; it's like a first cut because you hear 'She walked to the door,' and you visualize all these things. 'She opens the door' . . . because you read the stage directions, too.”

Ifs Trying Firsts Sometimes Play Together Reading Actors Records Cutting Doors Stage Scripts Don't Trust Stage Directions

Author:Al Pacino

“The reasons you have for doing a movie will vary with the way your life is going. There was a time when a made a some movies because I felt I needed to work. And I didn't think about the material as much. But sometimes I've thought about the material a lot and thought I was doing the right thing, and it didn't work out.”

Thinking Way Made Sometimes Reason Life Is Felt Materials Needed Work Out Right Thing Vary Doing The Right Thing

Author:Al Pacino

“Certainly the movies were always in the air for me. I come from the era when actors thought it was a big deal to be in the movies.”

Bigs Actors Deals Air Eras Big Deal

Author:Al Pacino

“It's so funny when people who are not used to making movies get into it. You just can't believe how insufferably boring it is. Waiting around and doing these lines over and over and finally having to go in and loop the lines and dub them.”

People Believe Used Waiting Lines Boring Loops Waiting Around

Author:Al Pacino

“Responsibilities are relative. My responsibility is to a character in a script, to a part I'm playing.”

Character Responsibility Scripts Relative

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“Sometimes you're fighting corporations and forget that people can talk to each other.”

People Sometimes Fighting Forget Corporations

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“Any project that I find encouraging that isn't attached to a studio, I can go to them, which I definitely would. You have to take an interest in what you do.”

I Can Interest Projects Studios

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“Whether he's doing great acting or not, you're seeing somebody who is in the tradition of a great actor. What he does with it, that's something else, but he's got it all. The talent, the instrument is there, that's why he has endured.”

Doe Actors Acting Seeing Talent Tradition Instruments Great Actors

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“You don't get to know anybody in a movie until after it's over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage.”

Knows Together Film Over You

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I used to think of myself as a comedian. I've always admired comedians. Their minds, the way in which they se the world is so striking, the way they juxtapose things, the way they can see humor in people. There's a liberation in that.”

People Thinking World Way Mind Used Liberation Comedian

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I' ve won awards. And they didn't make me feel bad winning them. They made me feel pretty good. But it also did not make me feel bad NOT winning the Academy Award.”

Feels Made Winning Awards Academy Academy Awards

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I would say I am more concerned with the plays I'm going to do than the movies. I'm more comfortable in a play. In film, there's always a certain sense of control, of holding back. The stage is different ; there's more to act. There are more demands put on you, more experiences to go through.”

Different Play Film Certain Stage Demand Comfortable Concerned Holding Back

Author:Al Pacino

“The play is the source, it is orchestrated with words. In a movie, you are not dealing with as much as that. There are machines and wires. When you're acting for a camera, it keeps taking and never giving back.”

Giving Play Acting Source Machines Cameras Wire Giving Back

Author:Al Pacino

“When you perform with a live audience, the audience comes back to you, so that you and the audience are giving to each other, in a sense. It's an extraordinary thing. It's wild turf up there.”

Giving Audience Extraordinary Extraordinary Things Turf

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“Actors are always outsiders. It's necessary to be able to interpret - and that gets distorted when you become famous.”

Able Actors Outsiders

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“It used to worry me what people said about me. I'm learning not to worry as much. Sometimes you feel critics are wrong all the time, but I don 't take objection to it, because that's the way it goes. They can be wrong, they can be right. They can be cruel, they can be kind.”

People Way Feels Kind Said Sometimes Used Worry Critics Be Kind Objections

Author:Al Pacino

“Shakespeare is one of the reasons I've stayed an actor. Sometimes I spend full days doing Shakespeare by myself, just for the joy of reading it, saying those words... I do Shakespeare when I am feeling a certain way.”

Way Sometimes Reason Feelings Joy Certain Reading Actors Joy Of Reading

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“People are always asking me to do Shakespeare - at home, at colleges, on film locations, in restaurants. It's like playing a piece of music, getting all the notes. It's great therapy.”

People Home Film Pieces College Asking Notes Therapy Restaurants Location

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I come from the South Bronx - a true descendant of the melting pot. I grew up in a really mixed neighborhood; it was a very integrated life.”

Grew Grew Up South Neighborhood Pot Melting Integrated Descendants Bronx Melting Pot

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I learned to wrestle, I learned defensive fighting at a young age, because when someone hit me, I would throw up and fall down.”

Age Young Fall Fighting Young Age Falling Down

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“My grandfather was a provider. Work, any kind of work, was the joy of his life. So I grew up having a certain relationship to work. It was something that I always wanted.”

Kind Wanted Joy Certain Grew Grew Up Working It Grandfather My Grandfather Providers

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“There are people whose sense of reality is very strong, who have a sense of honesty. Lee Strasberg is like that, my grandfather was like that. These are the kinds of men I've had close relationships with.”

People Men Kind Reality Strong Honesty Very Strong Grandfather My Grandfather Close Relationship

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I wanted to be a baseball player, naturally, but I wasn't good enough. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I just had a kind of energy, I was a fairly happy kid.”

Knows Kind Enough Kids Wanted Energy Player Baseball Good Enough Baseball Player Happy Kid

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I went to Performing Arts because that was the only school that would accept me. My scholastic level was not very high.”

Art School Levels Accepting Art Is Performing Performing Arts Accept Me Scholastics

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I was never very happy with performing; it didn't turn me on much.”

Turns Performing Very Happy Turn Me

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

“I love work because it keeps sex in perspective. Otherwise, it can become a preoccupation.”

Sex Perspective Preoccupation

Book:Al Pacino

Source: Al Pacino

About the Author

Born: April 25, 1940
Known for: Film actor
Quotes: 197

Related Topics

Actors Way Ifs People Knows Play Acting Thinking Want Feels

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Al PacinoRelated source material

Sonny Boy: A MemoirRelated source material

Similar Authors

Kristen StewartBrowse related quotes
Clint EastwoodBrowse related quotes
Meryl StreepBrowse related quotes
Michael CaineBrowse related quotes
Christopher WalkenBrowse related quotes
Jack NicholsonBrowse related quotes
Morgan FreemanBrowse related quotes
John C. ReillyBrowse related quotes
Christian BaleBrowse related quotes
Jeff BridgesBrowse related quotes