Quotes from Sarah Bernhardt

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

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.

Energy creates energy. It is by spending myself that I become rich.

I have often been asked why I am so fond of playing male parts. As a matter of fact, it is not male parts, but male brains that I prefer.

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.

Permanent success cannot be achieved except by incessant intellectual labour, always inspired by the ideal.

I adore Chicago. It is the pulse of America.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

For the theatre one needs long arms; it is better to have them too long than too short. An artiste with short arms can never, never make a fine gesture.

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

I burn like a devil, and at the same time I am as happy as a god.

My fame had become annoying for my enemies, and a little trying, I confess, for my friends.

I did nothing to attract attention. My somewhat fantastic tastes, my paleness and thinness, my peculiar way of dressing, my scorn of fashion, my general freedom in all respects, made me a being quite apart from all others. I did not recognise the fact. I did not read, I never read, the newspapers. So I did not know what was said about me, either favourable or unfavourable. Surrounded by a court of adorers of both sexes, I lived in a sunny dream.

Life is short, even for those who live a long time, and we must live for the few who know and appreciate us, who judge and absolve us, and for whom we have the same affection and indulgence. The rest I look upon as a mere crowd, lively or sad, loyal or corrupt, from whom there is nothing to be expected but fleeting emotions, either pleasant or unpleasant, which leave no trace behind them.

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?

He was religious, very religious indeed, this uncle of mine, and after the death of my aunt he became a Carthusian monk. As I write these lines, ill and aged as he is, and bent with pain, I know he is digging his own grave, weak with the weight of the spade, imploring God to take him, and thinking sometimes of me, of his little Bohemian. Ah, the dear, good man, it is to him that I owe all that is best in me.

My thinness is eccentric, people say. Well, what can I do? I should very much prefer to be deliciously ripe.

Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public.