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Quote by Wallace Shawn

“When I was a child, I did always feel that people were hiding things, and that they weren't expressing their true feelings. When adults are too complicated, and cover their emotions with layers of well-intentioned subterfuge, the child isn't seeing reality clearly enough and gets upset.”

Quote by Wallace Shawn

Author

Wallace Shawn, born on November 12, 1943, is an American actor, playwright, and voice actor. He has made significant contributions to the stage and screen in Hollywood and on Broadway, known for his unique acting style and sense of humor. more

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“Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children.”

Thinking Children Film Understanding Adults Performances Treated Naive Pretense

Author:Wallace Shawn

“"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant.”

Persons Play Character Certain Decided Theater Fever

Author:Wallace Shawn

“I started writing plays in around 1967, and at a certain point, I thought, 'I'm writing plays, I should learn about acting and what it is.' So I went to the HB Studio in New York, and I was there for about nine months.”

Should Writing Play Certain Acting New York Months Studios Nine Nine Months

Author:Wallace Shawn

“I grew up. I began to think the United States had some problems that really required the help of artistic people to solve. And I gave myself permission to be a writer instead of a civil servant.”

People Thinking States Helping Problem United United States Grew Grew Up Solve Artistic Servant Permission Civil Servants

Author:Wallace Shawn

“My personal life is lived as 'me,' but my professional life is lived as other people. In other words, when I go to the office, I lie down, dream, and become 'someone else.' That's my job.”

People Dream Jobs Life Is Lying Office Personal Life Professional Life

Book:Essays

Source: Essays

“The actor's role in the community is quite unlike anyone else's. Businessmen, for example, don't take their clothes off or cry in front of strangers in the course of their work. Actors do.”

Courses Actors Community Roles Fronts Cry Example Clothes Stranger Businessman

Author:Wallace Shawn

“When I was first exposed to the films of Ingmar Bergman, I found them frank and disturbing portraits of the world we live in, but that was not something that displeased me. They were beautiful. I thought people would respond to my plays the way I responded to Bergman's films.”

People World Way Firsts Play Beautiful Film Found Exposed Frank Portraits Disturbing Bergman

Author:Wallace Shawn

“There's nothing regular about my life at all, really. I don't keep a regular schedule and every day is different. It's all rather chaotic.”

Different Schedules Chaotic

Author:Wallace Shawn

“If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don't memorize the script The reality about auditions is that 98 percent of the results has to do with what you are, not with what you did in the audition.”

Ifs Giving Reality Young Actors Results Advice Percent Scripts Auditions Scrap Young Actors

Author:Wallace Shawn

“When I was first starting to write plays, I quite literally had never heard of the idea of studying playwriting. I wouldn't have studied it even if I had heard of it.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Ideas Play Study Heard Starting Playwriting Starting To Write

Author:Wallace Shawn