Quotes About Craft

Of course I had. That's how I do it.

What Robert was trying to do so intently was, in fact, no more than craft. He did no more than copy my tics and twitches—even to the point of staring at my family portrait, a very personal part of my disguise, for his character research—

Good wood often warps if no craftsman uses it.

The main point then is that an actor should not try to acquire any kind of recipe or build up a box of tricks. This is no place for collecting all sorts of means of expression.

That's how writing works, at least for me: even the stuff that doesn't work out gets funneled into the stuff that does work out.

Photography is the first art wherein the tool does most of the work.

I think that all actors find they go down and then they come back up if you work on your craft. They come back up to the top and then they go back down and they come back up and they go back down.

I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters.

After directing movies, I respect any director in this world, because making a movie as a director is tons and tons of work.

The great thing about being a writer is that you have a long, perhaps frighteningly long time in which to do your work.

I never think of myself as an actor who takes work home with them.

I'd always thought that acting was, like, you had to work really hard, you had to change the way you walked, you talked, and all of that. But that's not acting. That's shmacting.

Living in the world of the workshop, which I do as a teacher, you have to be articulate about craft. And that often involves imposing analysis on work that's in a pretty raw state.

I realized that was what was happening in my work already. I think that's where, as artists, we begin to master our craft: when we're able to step back and understand things.

There's a perception that good writing is writing which runs smoothly. But smooth-running prose can work against what you're trying to express in a novel.

I think I'm very strong at dialogue, I think I'm very strong in characterization. I think sometimes I use dialogue and character work to cover weaknesses in my plotting.

I didn't get into this so I could talk about my work, my movies. You become an actor to act.

I did all the dialect work, all my character work completely by myself.

There's less skill and more plain hard work to writing than anyone except a writer thinks.

Let every man practice the art that he knows best.

Writers learn their craft, above all, from the work of other writers. From reading.

What I love about the theater is the work ethic. I grew up with it.

It's a pretty good job being an actor, but it's work sometimes. And when I say work, I mean it's a job.

That's where everything starts, as an actor: you've gotta have great writing and great character development, and then you have really great materials to work from.