What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?

Legend remains victorious in spite of history.

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.

The theatre is the involuntary reflex of the ideas of the crowd.

The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions.

Oscar Wilde: 'Do you mind if I smoke?' Sarah Bernhardt: 'I don't care if you burn.'

Once the curtain is raised, the actor is ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third.

Your words are my food, your breath my wine. You are everything to me.

To be a good actor... it is necessary to have a firmly tempered soul, to be surprised at nothing, to resume each minute the laborious task that has barely just been finished.

Each action of the actor on the stage should be the visible concomitant of his thoughts.

The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear.

Although all new ideas are born in France, they are not readily adopted there. It seems that they must first commence to prosper in a foreign country.

For the theatre one needs long arms... an artiste with short arms can never make a fine gesture.

He who is incapable of feeling strong passions, of being shaken by anger, of living in every sense of the word, will never be a good actor.

I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America.