Quotes from Constantin Stanislavski

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.

In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play; the mother, the actor pregnant with the part; and the child, the role to be born.

You'll never see any two good actors approach a role in the same way.

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

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

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

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.

In life we listen to other people. Listen with varying degrees of concentration and attention, right? Actors must learn to listen in a different way.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.

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

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

Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art.

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

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.

You can kill the King without a sword, and you can light the fire without a match. What needs to burn is your imagination.

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.

Of course, if you have thought up to now that an actor relies merely on inspiration you will have to change your mind. Talent without work is nothing more than raw unfinished material.

Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.