Quotes from Konstantin Stanislavsky

On the stage do not run for the sake of running, or suffer for the sake of suffering. Don't act "in general", for the sake of action; always act with a purpose.

All action in the theatre must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and real.

At the bottom of every process of obtaining creative material for our work is emotion. Feeling, however, does not replace an immense amount of work on the part of our intellects. Perhaps you are afraid that the little touches which your mind may add on its own account will spoil your material drawn from life? Never fear that. Often these original additions enhance it greatly if your belief in them is sincere.

don't spend your time chasing after an inspiration that once chanced your way. It is as unrecoverable as yesterday, as the joys of childhood, as first love. Bend your efforts to creating a new and fresh inspiration for today. There is no reason to suppose that it will be less good than yesterday's. It may not be as brilliant. But you have the advantage of possessing it today.

To avoid such mistakes, remember, for all time, that when you begin to study each role you should first gather all the materials that have any bearing on it, and supplement them with more and more imagination, until you have achieved such a similarity to life that it is easy to believe in what you are doing. in the beginning forget about your feelings. When the inner conditions are prepared, and right, feelings will come to the surface of their own accord.

Truth in art is truth n circumstances.

If [...] inspiration does not turn up then neither you nor they have anything with which to fill in the blank spaces. You have long stretches of nervous let-down [...], complete artistic impotence, and naïve amateurish sort of acting.

To tell the truth, I was simply going to take on the external mannerisms of my acquaintance," admitted Paul frankly. "That was a great mistake," Tortsov replied. "At that point you went over to sheer imitation, which has nothing to do with creativeness

When you point out to him the palpable absurdity of some false action he has taken he is more than willing to cut it. But what can he do if his own feelings are not able to convince him? Who will guarantee that, having rid himself of one lie, another will not immediately take its place? A grain of truth must be planted under the falsehood, eventually to supplant it, as a child's second set of teeth pushes out the first.

Whereas mechanical acting makes use of worked-out stencils to replace real feelings, over-acting takes the first general human conventions that come along and uses them without even sharpening or preparing them for the stage. What happened to you is understandable and excusable in a beginner. But be careful in the future, because amateurish over-acting grows into the worst kind of mechanical acting.

You know now that our work on a play begins with the use of _if_ as a lever to lift us out of everyday life on to the plane of imagination.

Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art.