Pacino Quotes & Sayings

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. — Al Pacino

The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying - even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear. — Al Pacino

Chekhov was as important to me as anybody as a writer. — Al Pacino

The only thing in this world that gives orders is balls. — Al Pacino

All due respect and trying to be as modest as I can be, I am a dancer. But I don't think I would be on 'Dancing with the Stars,' mainly because I would be too shy. — Al Pacino

My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After World War II he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn't know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother. — Al Pacino

Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay and Al Pacino made me want to act. I've always been interested in men with a vulnerable side. — Martin Freeman

They say we die twice - once when the last breath leaves our body and once when the last person we know says our name. — Al Pacino

I am looking forward to seeing my buddy Colin represent in front of Pacino. That's sweet. — Michelle Rodriguez

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. — Al Pacino

I guess 'Scarface' was the Cuban Al Pacino. — Oscar Isaac

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. — Al Pacino

I grew up watching Marlon Brando, Christopher Walken, Robert de Niro, and Al Pacino and even Robert Duvall and was impressed by their caliber of work. — Cole Hauser

A lot of acting is private time. — Al Pacino

Acting is hard work. At times, it's very energizing and enervating. It's childish. It's also responsible. It's illuminating, enriching, joyful, drab. It's bizarre, diabolical. It's exciting. — Al Pacino

One of the things that made me want to be an actor more than ever was seeing a Chekhov play, "The Sea Gull," when was 14 in the Bronx. — 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. — Al Pacino

I was born in Dallas; then I moved to Allen, Texas. But then I got sent to boarding school, where I started to get fascinated with actors like Al Pacino. — Scott Haze

I've always been in the theater. I've always gone to it. That's been my way to cope. Early on in my career, I remember running - fleeing - to the theater as a way of coping with all the meshugaas that was going on for me. — 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. — Al Pacino

Theater for me at one point was a lifestyle, too. — 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. — Al Pacino

Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow. — Al Pacino

There is only one way of surviving all the early heartbreaks in this business. You must have a sense of humor. And I think it also helps if you are a dreamer. I had my dreams all right. And that is something no one can ever take away. They cost nothing, and they can be as real as you like to make them. You own your dreams and they are priceless. I've been a lavatory attendant, a theatre usher, a panhandler, all for real. Now, as an actor, I can be a journalist today and a brain surgeon tomorrow. That's the stuff my dreams are made of. — Al Pacino

Jamie Foxx does a good rendition of me. It's a real gift, mimicry of that kind, the tonal thing. It's sort of like having a talent for playing an instrument. — Al Pacino

A kiss is a lusty dollop of dessert to be served with desire and savored with passion. — Al Pacino

Freedom, baby, is never having to say youre sorry. — Al Pacino

I would love to work with Robert De Niro or Al Pacino. I think they're wonderful actors. — Catherine Deneuve

I used to wear disguises, like hats and false beards, just to walk around and avoid attention. — Al Pacino

There are a lot of roles in Shakespeare, basically. If I feel that the script is a movie, I would be interested in doing any role of Shakespeare's. — Al Pacino

My favorite older movie of all-time is "Scarface." Al Pacino played that role so well. It's a longer movie, but I like it. — Virgil Green

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. — Al Pacino

I like, for instance, 'Serpico.' I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could - I could embody him. I could, you know, I could work and get to know him and have him help me with the text, the script and become him. It's almost like a painter having a model to become. — Al Pacino

I love the early films of Al Pacino - 'Scarface,' 'Serpico' - and I love many science-fiction films. — Ornella Muti

You know one scene I always think about is in 'The Godfather', when Marlon Brando's in the hospital. Al Pacino arrives there and enlists the help of the baker to protect his father. The two of them stand outside and the baker fiddles with a cigarette lighter, but Pacino's hands are rock steady. That's when we sort of realize that he can do this. — Garret Dillahunt

On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is
can you win or lose like a man? — Al Pacino

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

That's where humour lives for me. In the body. The Steve Martin kind of stuff or Jim Carrey, that's what I like. I've always felt that's what I would like to do. — Al Pacino

I don't ever give my opinion. Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life. — 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. — Al Pacino

I've never liked the recognition, the questions, the publicity. I have often felt like running away and hiding. — Al Pacino

I'm a big Pacino fan. He's a great actor: so much passion and intensity. — Judah Friedlander

Vanity: my favorite sin. — Al Pacino

The thing is doing it, that's what it's all about. Not in the results of it. After all what is a risk? It's a risk not to take risks. Otherwise, you can go stale and repeat yourself. I don't feel like a person who takes risks. Yet there's something within me that must provoke controversy because I find it wherever I go. Anybody who cares about what he does takes risks. — Al Pacino

I'd hoped for someone who was remarkably intelligent, but disadvantaged by home circumstance, someone who only needed an hour's extra tuition a week to become some kind of working-class prodigy. I wanted my hour a week to make the difference between a future addicted to heroin and a future studying English at Oxford. That was the sort of kid I wanted, and instead they'd given me someone whose chief interest was in eating fruit. I mean, what did he need to read for? There's an international symbol for the gents' toilets, and he could always get his mother to tell him what was on television. — Nick Hornby

I see film roles as lovely presents that come along now and again. I feel really lucky and say thank you very much. And if they fly me to L.A., I think, 'God, I must really be doing well.' I've worked with De Niro and Brando and Pacino, and that's made me feel very lucky. But the films have never meant a lot to me. — Michael Gambon

Some of the roles that are challenging are more in theater and TV. In movies, there's a tendency to cast actors in roles that have been successful for them. It has to pay for itself. — 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. — Al Pacino

Here I was going to work with Pacino thinking, "I'm not going to get lucky twice. There's no way. This guy is going to hand me my ass." He looks like the kind of guy who's going to hand you your ass. It's Al Pacino. — Johnny Depp

Attica! Attica! Attica! — Al Pacino

Voices are a good way to get in and out of things. James Carville constantly calls my wife to say I'll be home late. Mandy Patinkin and Al Pacino call to get me restaurant reservations. — Bill Hader

I remember acting in a school play about the melting pot when I was very little. There was a great big pot onstage. On the other side of the pot was a little girl who had dark hair, and she and I were representing the Italians. And I thought: Is that what an Italian looked like? — Al Pacino

There is no happiness. There is only concentration. — Al Pacino

There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life. — Al Pacino

I was a theater guy growing up and I wanted to be Al Pacino, and I think I just looked and sounded too funny. — Charlie Day

I hope the perception is that I'm an actor, I never intended to be a movie star. — Al Pacino

My weaknesses ... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing. — Al Pacino

God, I hate interviews with actors pouncing on. Who wants to know about their lives? I don't want to know about Al Pacino's life. — Jason Isaacs

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers. — Al Pacino

Did you know I started out as a stand-up comic? People don't believe me when I tell them. That's how I saw myself, in comedy. — Al Pacino

The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul, you don't have a movie, — 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? — Al Pacino

Love goes through different stages. But it endures. — Al Pacino

I don't think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You've got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition's an opportunity to have an audience. — Al Pacino

I'm a big fan of all the great movie devils, from Walter Huston to Ray Walston to Al Pacino to Jack Nicholson. — Ray Wise

When I was younger, I would go to auditions to have the opportunity to audition, which would mean another chance to get up there and try out my stuff, or try out what I learned and see how it worked with an audience, because where are you gonna get an audience? — Al Pacino

Take a look at Israel's history and you would know who the terrorist is. — Al Pacino

Th e basic principle of Method acting is that you should draw on your own personal experience - "You know how you felt when you were seven, and your dog died? Well, think about that when you're playing Hamlet." It sounds simple enough, but it involves learning lots of techniques to heighten your capacity for emotional recall. Those techniques were westernized from the original Russian templates by people like Lee Strasberg, who taught James Dean and Al Pacino, and Stella Adler - another teacher in New York at the time - who taught Brando. — Anonymous

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. — Al Pacino

Money makes your life easier. If you're lucky to have it, you're lucky. — Al Pacino

I love work because it keeps sex in perspective. Otherwise, it can become a preoccupation. — Al Pacino

I can't wait to meet Steven Spielberg or Al Pacino again so I can say, 'I have to tell you how you know me. You know me because I am the worst actor in the world.' — Jim Rash

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. — Al Pacino

The World Is Yours — Al Pacino

Responsibilities are relative. My responsibility is to a character in a script, to a part I'm playing. — 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. — Al Pacino

Without coffee something's missing — Al Pacino

I don't believe in God, I only believe in Al Pacino, and that's the truth. — Javier Bardem

I couldn't believe when I first got a fan letter from Al Pacino, it was unreal. — Christopher Plummer

I like 'The Usual Suspects'. Great film. I also like 'Scarface', films like that. Lots of gangster films. I really like watching all kinds of films, dramas, romance. I'll watch comedies. I like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle. I'd like to meet them. — Barkhad Abdi

I always wanted to do films. I'd gone to New York early in 1976 and did a lot of theater, but I really wanted to chase the paths of people like Pacino and Lemmon and those guys. Alan Arkin. Film was where I wanted to go. — Jeff Daniels

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

Our life is looking forward or looking back, that's it. Where is the moment? — Al Pacino

But I'm not as bad as Al Pacino - he doesn't even know what month it is half the time when he's working. — John Goodman

I've often said there's two kinds of actors. There's a more gregarious type and the shy type. — Al Pacino

I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools. — Al Pacino

I would love to have a part opposite a great actor - like, say, Pacino or De Niro or Hoffman. And to work with a top director. That's my dream. — Jon Lovitz

As an actor there's a lot of scrutiny and, even when you've had success, it becomes about sustaining that success. A friend of mine described it as a peakless mountain. Even for De Niro there's Pacino and for Pacino there's De Niro. — Eddie Redmayne

I love Al Pacino. — Rain

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. — Al Pacino

You'll never be alone if you've got a book. — Al Pacino

On the one hand, you have these huge budget films that cost millions of dollars. They are effects driven, they don't have well known actors in them, and they are making money. Well, some of them are. One the other hand, you have Stallone and Statham, and guys like DeNiro and Pacino, and Costner, who are all trying to make movies about real people. They are interested in character driven projects. — Dolph Lundgren

I wouldn't be able to act like Al Pacino or play the piano like Dr. John, But I could probably act better than Dr. John and play the piano better than Al Pacino. — Hugh Laurie

Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it. — Al Pacino

I was never very happy with performing; it didn't turn me on much. — Al Pacino

Explain to me what Italian-American culture is. We've been here 100 years. Isn't Italian-American culture American culture? That's because we're so diverse, in terms of intermarriage. — Al Pacino

I'm always on a red carpet ... the other day I thought, this ain't bad. You can meet people on it. — 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. — 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. — Al Pacino

It's never really that much fun for me to do movies anyway, because you - you know, you have to get up very early in the morning and you have to go in and you spend a lot of time waiting around. — Al Pacino