Constantin Stanislavski famous quotes

The person you are is a thousand times more interesting than the best actor you could ever hope to be.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Interesting #Actors #Thousand

All action in theatre must have inner justification, be logical, coherent, and real.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Real #Theatre #Action

What is important to me is not the truth outside myself, but the truth within myself.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Important

In the language of an actor, to know is synonymous with to feel
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Actors #Language #Feels

Unless the theatre can ennoble you, make you a better person, you should flee from it.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Theatre #Better Person #Should

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Acting #Actors #Remember

The theatre infects the audience with its noble ecstasy.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Theatre #Noble #Ecstasy

Create your own method. Don't depend slavishly on mine. Make up something that will work for you! But keep breaking traditions, I beg you.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Break Up #Tradition #Breaking Promises

Talent is nothing but a prolonged period of attention and a shortened period of mental assimilation.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Attention #Talent #Periods

Play well, or play badly, but play truly.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Play #Theatre #Wells

The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Humility #Realizing #Greatest Wisdom

Never allow yourself externally to portray anything that you have not inwardly experienced and which is not even interesting to you.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Interesting

Our demands are simple, normal, and therefore they are difficult to satisfy. All we ask is that an actor on the stage live in accordance with natural laws.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Simple #Law #Actors

At times of great stress it is especially necessary to achieve a complete freeing of the muscles
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Stress #Achieve #Muscles

Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Artist #Interesting #Desire

Young actors, fear your admirers! Learn in time, from your first steps, to hear, understand and love the cruel truth about yourselves. Find out who can tell you that truth and talk of your art only with those who can tell you the truth.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Art #Theatre #And Love

Who am I? What will I be? Why am I here? Where am I going?
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Crafts

The actor must use his imagination to be able to answer all questions (when, where, why, how). Make the make-believer existence more definite.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Imagination #Use #Actors

We have as many planes of speech as does a painting planes of perspective which create perspective in a phrase. The most important word stands out most vividly defined in the very foreground of the sound plane. Less important words create a series of deeper planes.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Pain #Perspective #Important

Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Real #Artist #Soul

In the circle of light on the state in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone... This is called solitude in public... During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell... You can carry it wherever you go.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Light #Circles #Darkness

When we are on stage, we are in the here and now.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Stage #Here And Now

In every physical action, unless it is purely mechanical, there is concealed some inner action, some feelings. This is how the two levels of life in a part are created, the inner and the outer. They are intertwined. A common purpose brings them together and reinforces the unbreakable bond.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Philosophy #Two #Medicine

Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Success #Real #Lying

Remember this practical piece of advice: Never come into the theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing - all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art - at the door.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Life #Art #Doors

Fear your admirers! Learn in time to hear, understand, and love the cruel truth about yourselves!
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Editors #And Love #Admirer

A true priest is aware of the presence of the altar during every moment that he is conducting a service. It is exactly the same way that a true artist should react to the stage all the time he is in the theater. An actor who is incapable of this feeling will never be a true artist.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Artist #Feelings #Acting

The direct effect on our mind is achieved by the words, the text, the thought, which arouse consideration. Our will is directly affected by the super-objective, by other objectives, by a through line of action. Our feelings are directly worked upon by tempo-rhythm.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Feelings #Mind #Lines

In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Art #Stars #Roots

The life of a character should be an unbroken line of events and emotions, but a play only gives us a few moments on that line - we must create the rest to portray a convincing life.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Character #Play #Giving

Stage charm guarantees in advance an actor's hold on the audience, it helps him to carry over to large numbers of people his creative purposes. It enhances his roles and his art. Yet it is of utmost importance that he use this precious gift with prudence, wisdom, and modesty. It is a great shame when he does not realize this and goes on to exploit, to play on his ability to charm.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Art #Play #Numbers

When an actor is completely absorbed by some profoundly moving objective so that he throws his whole being passionately into its execution, he reaches a state we call inspiration.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Moving #Inspiration #Execution

It is through you, actors, that the forces which are understood by millions and that tell of everything that is beautiful on earth, find expression. The forces which reveal to people the happiness of living in a widened consciousness and in the joy of creative work for the whole world. You, the actors of a theatre, which is one of the centres of human culture, will never be understood by the people if you are unable to reflect the spiritual needs of your time, the now in which you are living.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Beautiful #Spiritual #Expression

The main factor in any form of creativeness is the life of a human spirit, that of the actor and his part, their joint feelings and subconscious creation.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Feelings #Acting #Actors

The language of the body is the key that can unlock the soul.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Communication #Keys #Soul

Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Love #Art

The main difference between the art of the actor and all other arts is that every other [non-performing] artist may create whenever he is in the mood of inspiration. But the artist of the stage must be the master of his own inspiration, and must know how to call it forth at the hour announced on the posters of the theatre. This is the chief secret of our art.
-- Constantin Stanislavski

#Art #Inspiration #Differences