Antony Sher Quotes & Sayings

Ciss says, 'People have less emotions than actors think they have. For much of the time we hide our emotions, we haven't time for emotions. Our brains work so much faster than our emotions. — Antony Sher

I love playing outsiders, I always do. — Antony Sher

I believe deeply in therapy. There's no one in the world who wouldn't benefit from it. — Antony Sher

The whole of my acting career is a bit of a mystery to me. — Antony Sher

Life is just more comfortable if you're honest and open about everything. I spent so many years being in the closet about one thing or another. — Antony Sher

When I am on a long run in a play, I'm not sure how I would fill the days if I did not paint or write. On a basic level, it just stops me going crazy. — Antony Sher

My grandparents all came from Lithuania to South Africa. — Antony Sher

It's good for actors to confront those things we have to act: panic, pain and death. — Antony Sher

I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for good material. It's not a comfortable truth, but it is true. — Antony Sher

Michael Caine should have the last word on the reviews: 'What about those reviews then?'
'I don't read them.'
'Don't read them? You wrote them didn't you? — Antony Sher

I'm a complete technophobe. I can't even email. — Antony Sher

What drew me to acting in the first place was disguise. — Antony Sher

I feel so sorry for younger actors who aren't able to have the opportunities that I had, starting out in repertory theatre. It's really tough on young actors now. — Antony Sher

We've all got darkness inside us. And I've got quite a lot of darkness. — Antony Sher

I have no cynicism at all. — Antony Sher

Why is an actor's unintentional giggling called a 'corpse'? It seems to me quite the opposite. It proves that he's very much alive, and can still tell how silly this all is: him dressed up as someone else speaking words written by a third party. — Antony Sher

I'm a huge fan of David Hockney. I love the way he keeps reinventing himself. — Antony Sher

Reading Shakespeare is sometimes like looking through a window into a dark room. You don't see in. You see nothing but a reflection of yourself unable to see in. An unflattering image of yourself blind. — Antony Sher

I have a Woody Allen Jewish attitude to life: that it's all going to be disastrous. That it hasn't all been that way is simply down to some random quirk of fate. — Antony Sher

If I could write a letter to my teenage self, I'd probably say something like: 'You ain't gonna believe what will become of you.' — Antony Sher

I was never built to play the hero. Physically or emotionally ... And they're not as rewarding to play. At least for me. — Antony Sher

Most of my career has been spent with the RSC doing Shakespeare, and the thing you learn from Shakespeare is that his historical plays don't bear anything other than a basic resemblance to history. — Antony Sher

The effort of learning. It's the same when you approach any new skill or technique, from a dance step to driving a car. The effort of learning stops you, at first, from doing it well. — Antony Sher

I'm always very proud of belonging to three minorities: gay, Jewish, white South African. — Antony Sher

A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people. — Antony Sher

I've been quoting the book [on Peter Sutcliffe] constantly in rehearsals. Some members of the cast have stated their disapproval that it should even have been written. Some of the women have expressed more - disgust and anger. What are they saying? They'd prefer not to know, not to understand? They'd prefer certain areas of life to be censored? Isn't that partly what breeds the Sutcliffes and the Nilsens? — Antony Sher

As a gay Jewish white South African, I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are, what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are. — Antony Sher

Now the dressing-room full of RSC hierarchy. Suddenly Trevor Nunn pushes his way through and 'Trevs' me. I've heard a lot about this 'Trevving', but never had it done to me. From what I'd heard, a 'Trev' is an arm round your shoulder and a sideways squeeze. But this 'Trev' is a full frontal hug, so complete and so intimate that the dressing-room instantly clears, as if by suction. I'm left alone in the arms of this famous man wondering whether it's polite to let go. — Antony Sher

I was a weak kid, not good at what all the boys at school were good at and I found that by acting, by being other people, I could liberate myself from those inadequacies. — Antony Sher

[Monty] talks about Fritz Perls and the Gestalt theory. The here and now is the only time that exists. And being yourself. Not accepting yourself, not taking yourself for granted. Being yourself. Your self. Monty defines 'normality' as a contententment with who you are. — Antony Sher

I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more. — Antony Sher

Every play I do, every book I write, every painting I paint, I will struggle with. I don't know what it's like for a project to come easy. — Antony Sher

I love the mixture that's in me. It makes me me. And that's why it's such a shame that people waste energy in denying who they are. — Antony Sher

As we're leaving the King's Arms Hotel after Sunday lunch, I watch a beautiful white dove walking down the wet road. A car approaches and the bird accidentally turns into the wheel rather than away from it. A gentle crunch. The car passes. A shape like a discarded napkin left in the road. Still perfectly white, no red stains, but bearing no relation anymore to the shape of a bird. A trail of white feathers flutter down the road after the car. The suddeness is very upsetting. That gentle crunch. — Antony Sher

When I'm painting and drawing I only do people. Acting is obviously portraiture - and writing is as well. — Antony Sher

You don't expect to get the letter saying, Her Majesty would like to appoint you Knight Commander of the British Empire! It was just a completely overwhelming and exciting day. — Antony Sher

I don't believe in an afterlife. — Antony Sher