C Stanislavski Quotes & Sayings

My mentor Jon Simmons introduced me to the Stanislavski system, which is so heavy on back-story. So you write and write and write these back stories about a character and then you throw it away. So then on set, if it doesn't come, then you didn't do your work. — Chris Zylka

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors. — Constantin Stanislavski

The first theatre I ever found was in the backyard of a new suburban community in the foothills of the Poconos. My dad was a young FBI agent at his first or second posting - we're all from New York. He was posted in Scranton, Pennsylvania and he put the family in a brand new red-brick apartment. It was in a C-shape and behind it was a small hill that led up to the woods. There was a white-washed brick wall that was a perfect theatre! There were windows and all the ladies behind the windows in their apartments. I would go out there after lunch every day and sing opera. — Constantin Stanislavski

We have as many planes of speech as does a painting planes of perspective which create perspective in a phrase. The most important word stands out most vividly defined in the very foreground of the sound plane. Less important words create a series of deeper planes. — Constantin Stanislavski

The direct effect on our mind is achieved by the words, the text, the thought, which arouse consideration. Our will is directly affected by the super-objective, by other objectives, by a through line of action. Our feelings are directly worked upon by tempo-rhythm. — Constantin Stanislavski

Of course, if you have thought up to now that an actor relies merely on inspiration you will have to change your mind. Talent without work is nothing more than raw unfinished material. — Constantin Stanislavski

The character has to have some kind of arch. The character has to go through an event, and be changed by the human event. — Constantin Stanislavski

In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play; the mother, the actor pregnant with the part; and the child, the role to be born. — Constantin Stanislavski

The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation. — Constantin Stanislavski

Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art. — Constantin Stanislavski

The language of the body is the key that can unlock the soul. — Constantin Stanislavski

Play well, or play badly, but play truly. — Constantin Stanislavski

The theatre infects the audience with its noble ecstasy. — Konstantin Stanislavski

If you are looking for something, don't go sit on the seashore and expect it to come and find you; you must search, search, search with all the stubbornness in you! — Konstantin Stanislavski

The main difference between the art of the actor and all other arts is that every other [non-performing] artist may create whenever he is in the mood of inspiration. But the artist of the stage must be the master of his own inspiration, and must know how to call it forth at the hour announced on the posters of the theatre. This is the chief secret of our art. — Constantin Stanislavski

I always think instinct is more interesting than anything you can think up. I mistrust and am rather bored with actors who are of the Stanislavski school who think about detail. — Denholm Elliott

Fear your admirers! Learn in time to hear, understand, and love the cruel truth about yourselves! — Constantin Stanislavski

You can kill the King without a sword, and you can light the fire without a match. What needs to burn is your imagination. — Konstantin Stanislavski

Don't go so deep in yourself that you no longer exist for your partner and for the character and for the play. — Constantin Stanislavski

It was only when I went to acting school that I was like, "You are absolutely such a pigheaded freak show that you thought you, at the age of 12 or 13, could have a better understanding of Stanislavski. Why did you think that you didn't need to go to school?" It was quite funny. But, I was certainly inspired. — Giles Matthey

What is important to me is not the truth outside myself, but the truth within myself. — Constantin Stanislavski

In every physical action, unless it is purely mechanical, there is concealed some inner action, some feelings. This is how the two levels of life in a part are created, the inner and the outer. They are intertwined. A common purpose brings them together and reinforces the unbreakable bond. — Constantin Stanislavski

My advice to any actor who's playing, quote, unquote, "extra" to think of it more like Stanislavski did. It's not a small part. You are the lead in the movie, in your own movie. — Harvey Keitel

I played Lucky in Waiting for Godot at Yale and it was a thing that Stanislavski talks about: he says you don't need his 'method' if you can count on your inspiration and it was a moment of inspiration that came to me, not in rehearsal but on stage. It hit me right there in the middle of the play and it was great-it travelled into immediate communication. — Sam Waterston

You must be so thoroughly immersed in the given circumstances of the play, then you decide what it is at any given moment what that the actor wants. — Constantin Stanislavski

The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it. — Constantin Stanislavski

In the circle of light on the state in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone ... This is called solitude in public ... During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell ... You can carry it wherever you go. — Konstantin Stanislavski

The actor must use his imagination to be able to answer all questions (when, where, why, how). Make the make-believer existence more definite. — Constantin Stanislavski

In the given circumstances you must be rooted in the play. Do not depart from the play. Don't cut yourself off from your partner in the scene, or partners. — Constantin Stanislavski

Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you. — Constantin Stanislavski

Some people have heard of The Method, which originally goes back to Stanislavski ... he gave you six major pointers whereby you became that character and tried to fool your mind psychologically. That's it in a nutshell. Daniel Day Lewis is an example of somebody like that who stays in character between takes. — David Wenham

I studied technique for ten years, from age 7 to 17. I guess you could say I went more on the Stanislavski side than the Meisner side - there's always that wide divide among actors when it comes to technique. — Thomas Ian Nicholas