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The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.

Laurence Olivier
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Purpose
Comedy
Disgust
Drama
Emotions
Exercise
Expression
Light
Office
Tears
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I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.
Laurence Olivier
When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.
Laurence Olivier
Have a very good reason for everything you do.
Laurence Olivier
We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.
Laurence Olivier
If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.
Laurence Olivier
Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.
Laurence Olivier
My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.
Laurence Olivier
The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.
Laurence Olivier
I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.
Laurence Olivier
I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.
Laurence Olivier
I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.
Laurence Olivier
I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.
Laurence Olivier
Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.
Laurence Olivier
Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.
Laurence Olivier
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.
Laurence Olivier
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
Laurence Olivier
The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.
Laurence Olivier
I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.
Laurence Olivier
'Richard III' is a really difficult play to film - it's involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I've ever done before.
Laurence Olivier
A man's prime interest in life must be his work.
Laurence Olivier
I can't think I've ever loved anybody quite as much... My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world.
Laurence Olivier
I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder.
Laurence Olivier
It took me two years to walk around a chair with ease; it took me another two years to learn how to laugh onstage - and I had to learn everything.
Laurence Olivier
Nine books have been written about me, and there's not a word of truth in any of them.
Laurence Olivier
Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time - every time I have a birthday.
Laurence Olivier
Take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.
Laurence Olivier
We used to have actresses trying to become stars; now we have stars trying to become actresses.
Laurence Olivier
If he was lost for a moment he would dive straight back into its honey.
Laurence Olivier
Dont waste your time striving for perfection instead strive for excellence doing your best.
Laurence Olivier
Don't waste your time striving for perfection; instead, strive for excellence - doing your best.
Laurence Olivier
I mean, all alternative comedy is are comedians that have being doing it for so long, for so long, that they were relaxed enough to start becoming personal on stage.
Patton Oswalt
The kinds of shows that seem to work now, the comedy shows, are those which require very little attention. They're superficial and I like articulate comedy.
Mary Tyler Moore
A lot of people have gotten into comedy because of certain influences in their lives or events that were painful, and I really have wracked my brain to figure it out. I pretty much have had a normal childhood. Maybe it was too normal.
Will Ferrell
I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.
Ben Stiller
I really enjoy comedy. It's a real challenge.
Ted Levine
I've mainly been in dramas, so this is one of my first comedy kind of performances in Cecil B. Demented.
Stephen Dorff
Well I sure had been looking for a comedy for years without any success.
Val Kilmer
Comedy is so hard; it's so much harder than drama. The pacing of it, the energy of it.
Josh Lucas
Stand-up comedy and poverty. Those were my two main endeavors.
Dave Foley
It seems like when I first started, people got into comedy because they wanted to be good comedians.
Wanda Sykes
It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It's rather like music: It's a lot of hitting notes precisely.
Christine Baranski
This is one of his most human and most amusing and witty novels. The characters are very Indian. I decided that I wanted to do a comedy, so this was just the right one.
Ismail Merchant
The English can be a very critical, unforgiving people, but criticism can be good. And this is a country that loves comedy.
Bjork
Black Comedy is a farce that is played in the dark, as you know, with the lights full on. It's the Chinese convention of reversing light and dark, and exactly where anybody is at any given moment is the play.
Peter Shaffer
I'd really been wanting to do a television series. I was looking for a comedy.
Jeanne Tripplehorn
I think Andy Kaufman is to comedy what the Velvet Underground was to music - it's like, 80 thousand records sold, but everybody who bought one started a band.
Courtney Love
Comedy is really not like any other art form in that it's very specialized and varied in it's content, but generic in it's title.
Joe Rogan
Comedy may be big business but it isn't pretty.
Steve Martin