Home / Quotes / Quote by John Gielgud

Quote by John Gielgud

“Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.”

Quote by John Gielgud

Author

John Gielgud was a renowned British actor, known for his exceptional performances on stage, screen, and television. Born on April 14, 1904, and passing away on May 21, 2000, Gielgud was celebrated for his deep acting talent and versatility. His career spanned several decades, and he became one of the most distinguished actors of the 20th century. more

You May Also Like

“Art is violent. To be decisive is violent. ... To place a chair at a partial angle on the stage destroys every other possible choice, every other option.”

Art Choices Acting Stage Art Is Violent Chairs Angle

Author:Anne Bogart

“Actors should be overheard, not listened to, and the audience is 50 percent of the performance.”

Should Actors Acting Audience Percent Performances

Author:Shirley Booth

“Competition is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors. The good actor is the one who competes, willingly, who enjoys competing. An actor must compete, or die...Peacefulness and the avoidance of trouble won't help in his acting. It is just the opposite he must seek.”

Want Firsts Helping Dies Actors Enjoy Acting Trouble Healthy Opposites Competition Rate Refuse Acknowledge Competing Avoidance Good Actors Peacefulness Healthy Competition

Author:Michael Shurtleff

“In every well-written play the battle rages between the primary powers of Good and Evil, and it is this battle which constitutes the life impulse of the play, its driving force, and is basic to all plot structures...In any true piece of art...the beginning and the end are, or should be, polar in principle. All the main qualities of the first section should transform themselves into their opposites in the last section.”

“When student-actors see people and the way they behave when together, see the color of the sky, hear the sounds in the air, feel the ground beneath them and the wind on their faces, they get a wider view of their personal world and development in the theater is quickened. The world provides the material for the theater and artistic growth develops hand-in-hand with one's recognition of it and one's self within it.”

People World Way Feels Self Hands Together Faces Actors Sound Growth Views Acting Air Sky Students Color Wind Materials Development Theater Recognition Artistic Behave Hand In Hand

Author:Viola Spolin

“When [actors] are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor.”

Shows Actors Acting Talking Audience Fine Servant Not Talking

Author:Cedric Hardwicke

“An actor is at his best a kind of unfrocked priest who, for an hour or two, can call on heaven and hell to mesmerize a group of innocents.”

Kind Two Actors Heaven Hours Acting Hell Groups Theatre Priests Heaven And Hell Theatre Acting Heaven Or Hell

Author:Alec Guinness

“The actor should not play a part. Like the Aeolian harps that used to be hung in the trees to be played only by the breeze, the actor should be an instrument played upon by the character he depicts.”

Should Play Character Used Actors Acting Tree Instruments Used To Be Hung Breeze Harps

Author:Alla Nazimova

“With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played.”

Men Mind Humans Said Character Problem Hate Black White Acting Roles Greater Honor Dignity Human Dignity

Author:Paul Robeson

“It's difficult, if not impossible, to get away with anything false before the camera. That instrument penetrates the husk of the actor; it reveals what's truly happening - if anything, if nothing. A close-up demands absolute truth. It's a severe and awesome truth”

Ifs Inspirational Motivational Actors Difficult Acting Impossible Demand Happenings Absolutes Cameras Instruments Get Away Severe Penetrate Absolute Truth

Book:Elia Kazan: A Life

Source: Elia Kazan: A Life