When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

The only greatness for man is immortality.

But you can't show some far off idyllic conception of behavior if you want the kids to come and see the picture. You've got to show what it's really like, and try to reach them on their own grounds.

I think the one thing this picture shows that's new is the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too.

I want to be a Texan 24 hours a day.

Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me.

The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.

I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.

When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.

To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.

Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man.

There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning.

Trust and belief are two prime considerations. You must not allow yourself to be opinionated.

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.

Only the gentle are ever really strong.

To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

To my way of thinking, an actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.

An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.

An actor should be judged by his performance only.

Death can't be considered because, if you're afraid to die, there's no room in your life to make discoveries.

I don't want anything seventy-thirty. Fifty-fifty's always good enough for me. I don't want to have to give anybody seventy; I don't want anybody to give me seventy. I want fifty.

I used to fly around quite a bit, you know? I took a lot of unnecessary chances on the highways. And I started racing, and now I drive on the highways, I'm extra cautious because no one knows what they're doing half the time. You don't know what this guy is going to do or that one.

My purpose in life does not include a hankering to charm society.

Racing is the only time I feel whole.

The only way to make a scene realistic is to do it the way you know it would really happen.

You try to be yourself, do only what you've always done and like to do, and right away, you're tagged as an oddball.

An actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.

Dream as if youll live forever live as if youll die today.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death if he can live on after hes dead then maybe he was a great man.

Dream as if youll live forever. Live as if youll die today.

Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.

It was always part of the plan to move into acting.

Be where the acting is. I live in Houston. Dallas is 4 1/2 hours away. I let them know there's no difference.

My mother keeps things in perspective for me. She makes me realize that the acting I do and love is no more important than what one of my brothers does-he works in a shoe repair shop. If my career ever tapers off, I'll go to college.

In Hungary, acting is a career for which one fits himself as earnestly as one studies for a degree in medicine, law, or philosophy.

I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself. It's passing through you more than you're creating it. You're not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower.

In LA, too many people want to go the quickest route from A to B. Method acting offers them that.

I don't see it as a form of healing, because if you have wounds that are bleeding I don't think acting will ever get them to stop. But I find acting is a form of illumination.

Maybe I can't act, but I know the gimmicks. I studied acting all my life and know what's good for me.

I know that if I'd had to go and take an exam for acting, I wouldn't have got anywhere. You don't take exams for acting, you take your courage.

I'm not acting, but I am acting.

I've done a lot of acting. I'm not saying I'm the greatest, but I'd love to act, I'd love to sing.

I had a bonding problem when I went off and boxed for five years. I was over in Europe and Asia fighting because I wanted to do something different; I was tired of acting. But the thing is, when I was done doing that, I couldn't get a job.

Acting for me is not that quid pro quo.

If you're acting, then there's a prescribed way to behave; whereas in life there's no prescribed way. So acting feels like a comfortable way to get through the day.

When I was a kid, the idea of why I wanted acting to be the thing I do for the rest of my life was different. It was, Oh yeah, I'll get girls and be famous.

And then, I suppose, there's also a cinematic reality on top of that. Because it was extremely difficult to keep tabs on, it was quite confusing acting that.