Sanford Meisner Quotes about Acting

Act before you think - your instincts are more honest than your thoughts.

Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.

Your acting will not be good until it is only yours. That's true of music, acting, anything creative. You work until finally nobody is acting like you.

The truth of ourselves is the root of our acting.

An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.

I'll tell you this: you cannot escape the impact of emotion, whether it's in a big theater or a tiny one. If you have it, it inflates you — correction, 'inflates' is not a good word. If you have it, it infects you and the audience. If you don't have it — don't bother; just say the lines as truthfully as you are capable of doing. You can't fake emotion. It immediately exposes the fact that you ain't got it.

Every little moment has a meaning all its own.

The greatest piece of acting or music or sculpture or what-have-you always has its roots in the truth of human emotion.

Acting in a scene is like paddling a canoe from a pebbly beach on to the river, the writer builds the canoe, and the actor provides the river. The river is the actor's thoughts and emotions.

Transfer the point of concentration to some object outside of yourself - another person, a puzzle, a broken plate that you are gluing.

Acting is the ability to live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances

Acting is not talking, it's living off the other fellow!!!

The foundation of acting is the reality of doing.

Acting is fun. Don't let that get around.

Find in yourself those human things which are universal.

Acting can be fun. Don't let it get around.