Al Pacino

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

It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard to fool the heart.

Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie.

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

The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Vanity is my favourite sin.

My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.

I dont understand the hatred and fear of gays and bisexuals and lesbians its a concept I honestly cannot grasp. To me its not who you love a man a woman what have you its the fact that you love. That is all that truly matters.

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

Most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

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

I'm so shy now I wear sunglasses everywhere I go.

Its easy to fool the eye but its hard to fool the heart.

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

I've never cared for guns. In fact, when I did 'Scent of a Woman' I had to learn how to assemble one.

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

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.

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?

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.

In America most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

My grandmother always came to my shows. She was always concerned about the way I dressed - even later on, when I was well known and I supported her.

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?

It would be hard to play a character you don't like - for me anyway - or can't find something in them to like.

I believe in one day at a time; you've got TODAY, that's what you' ve got.

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.

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.

I don't need bodyguards. I'm from the South Bronx.

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.

I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.

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.