Talk:Laurence Olivier

Unsourced

• We used to have actresses trying to become stars; now we have stars trying to become actresses.

• Of all the things I've done in life, directing a motion picture is the most beautiful. It's the most exciting and the nearest that an interpretive craftsman, such as an actor ... can possibly get to being a creator.

• Work is life for me, it is the only point of life — and with it there is almost religious belief that service is everything.

• Without Acting I Cannot Breathe.

• What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?

• Relax your feet.

• Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.
• (To a female costar) My dear, if I get an erection [during the scene] I apologise. If I don't get an erection I apologise.

• "Try acting. . . It's much easier!" Olivier jokingly to Strasbergian Method actor Dustin Hoffman, after Hoffman deprived himself of sleep for two days preparing for the famous "Is it safe?" scene in Marathon Man.

Quotes about Olivier (unsourced)

• He could speak Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were actually thinking them.
  • Charles Bennett