Laurence Olivier quotes | Thousands Of Quotes

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Have a very good reason for everything you do.

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.

I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

Laurence Olivier

Eyes

Open

I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

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

Actor

Eyes

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

Culture

Theater

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

Laurence Olivier

Actor

Universe

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

Laurence Olivier

Acting

Occupation

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.

Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

Laurence Olivier

Thought

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.

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

Instinct

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.