Quotes by Laurence Olivier

About Laurence Olivier:

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier was an English actor who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He also worked in films throughout his career, playing more than fifty cinema roles. Late in his career, he had considerable success in television roles.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.

Laurence Olivier

Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult.

Laurence Olivier

When you're a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you're older, it's a straight part.

Laurence Olivier

The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other p...

Laurence Olivier

Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.

Laurence Olivier

We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.

Laurence Olivier

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

Laurence Olivier

I often think that could we creep behind the actor's eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.

Laurence Olivier

Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

Laurence Olivier

If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.

Laurence Olivier

I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

Laurence Olivier

[the only acting advice he would give] What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?

Laurence Olivier

Acting is illusion, as much illusion as magic is, and not so much a matter of being real.

Laurence Olivier

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor - to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

Laurence Olivier

I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.

Laurence Olivier

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

Laurence Olivier

I'd like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God's a workman. I don't think there's anything better than a workman.

Laurence Olivier

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor-to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

Laurence Olivier

I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

Laurence Olivier

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

Laurence Olivier

Author Bio

  • NameLaurence Olivier
  • DescriptionBritish actor, director and producer
  • AliasesBaron Olivier of Brighton; The Lord Olivier
  • BornMay 22, 1907
  • DiedJuly 11, 1989
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionActor; Film Actor; Theatre Director; Film Director; Politician; Film Producer; Screenwriter
  • WorksMarathon Man; Wuthering Heights
  • AwardsAcademy Award For Best Actor