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

All action in theatre must have inner justification, be logical, coherent, and real. — Constantin Stanislavski

All art is autobiographical - if it's not, it's not going to quicken on-stage, and it's not going to come alive. — Constantin Stanislavski

I was truly happy. But my state was not that of any ordinary satisfaction. It was a joy which stemmed directly from creative, artistic achievement. — Konstantin Stanislavski

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

Stanislavski was right, you can find fresh pain every time you discover what you pretty much already know. — Chuck Palahniuk

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

In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant. — Constantin Stanislavski

Remember this practical piece of advice: Never come into the theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing - all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art - at the door. — 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

I do the best I can - I know my way around [Russian method acting pioneer] Stanislavski, but I can't take myself seriously like that. I respect people who do it, of course. I just think I'm lucky to still be working at 73. You reach a point in life where you just think, "Show up, do your job, make sure the cheque's on the way," and that's it. I'm not hungry to do anything more, really. — Anthony Hopkins

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

Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation. — Constantin Stanislavski

If you have a rifle, hanging on the wall in the first act, it should fire in the last act. — Konstantin 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

When you're playing a character who's cruel, look for the places where he's kind. When you're playing a character who is unhappy, look for the places where he has a glint of merriment. — 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

Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and which is not even interesting to you. — Constantin Stanislavski

Who am I? What will I be? Why am I here? Where am I going? — Constantin Stanislavski

Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him. — Konstantin Stanislavski

When we are on stage, we are in the here and now. — Constantin Stanislavski

Doubt is the enemy of creativeness. — Constantin Stanislavski

The person you are is a thousand times more interesting than the best actor you could ever hope to be. — Constantin Stanislavski

Everyone at every minute of his life must feel something. Only the dead have no sensations. — Konstantin Stanislavski

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it. — Constantin Stanislavski

Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets. — Constantin Stanislavski

Young actors, fear your admirers! Learn in time, from your first steps, to hear, understand and love the cruel truth about yourselves. Find out who can tell you that truth and talk of your art only with those who can tell you the truth. — Constantin Stanislavski

It is through you, actors, that the forces which are understood by millions and that tell of everything that is beautiful on earth, find expression. The forces which reveal to people the happiness of living in a widened consciousness and in the joy of creative work for the whole world. You, the actors of a theatre, which is one of the centres of human culture, will never be understood by the people if you are unable to reflect the spiritual needs of your time, the now in which you are living. — Constantin Stanislavski

The life of a character should be an unbroken line of events and emotions, but a play only gives us a few moments on that line - we must create the rest to portray a convincing life. — Constantin Stanislavski

Gratuitous cruelty borders on the pathological, psychotic and that becomes uninteresting because there is no choice. — Constantin Stanislavski

Love art in yourself, not yourself in art. — Konstantin Stanislavski

In the language of an actor, to know is synonymous with to feel — Konstantin Stanislavski

It is only when an actor feels that his inner and outer life on the stage is flowing naturally and normally, in the circumstances that surround him, that the deeper sources of his subconscious gently open, and from them come feelings we cannot always analyse. — Constantin Stanislavski

I was born an ordinary actor. I will die an ordinary actor. But I've persisted. — Constantin Stanislavski

When an actor is completely absorbed by some profoundly moving objective so that he throws his whole being passionately into its execution, he reaches a state we call inspiration. — Constantin Stanislavski

The "magic if" is a tool invented by Stanislavski, the father of acting craft, is to help an actor make appropriate choices. Essentially, the "magic if" refers to the answer to the question, "What would I do if I were this character in this situation?" Note that the question is not "What would I do if I were in this situation?" What you would do may be very different from what the character would do. Your job, based on your analysis of the script, the scene, and the given circumstances regarding the who of your character, is to decide what he or she would do. — Bruce Miller

In life we listen to other people. Listen with varying degrees of concentration and attention, right? Actors must learn to listen in a different way. — Constantin 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

Our demands are simple, normal, and therefore they are difficult to satisfy. All we ask is that an actor on the stage live in accordance with natural laws. — Constantin Stanislavski

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

In talking about a genius, you would not say that he lies; he sees realities with different eyes from ours. — Constantin Stanislavski

You'll never see any two good actors approach a role in the same way. — Constantin Stanislavski

A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist. — Constantin Stanislavski

Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art. — Konstantin Stanislavski

At times of great stress it is especially necessary to achieve a complete freeing of the muscles — Constantin Stanislavski