Quotes by Stella Adler

About Stella Adler:

Stella Adler was an American actress and acclaimed acting teacher. She founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and Los Angeles with long-time protégée Joanne Linville, who continues to teach Adler's technique. Her grandson Tom Oppenheim now runs the school in New York City, which has produced alumni such as Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Elaine Stritch, Kate Mulgrew, Kipp Hamilton, and Jenny Lumet.
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

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one.

Stella Adler

You have to do something. If you do something, you become somebody. Even a daffodil does something, has a profession. It gives off scent, professionally.

Stella Adler

Emotions aren't doable. Actions are doable, and if you do them correctly, they prompt the feelings.

Stella Adler

By taking elements you observe in life, you can develop qualities in your acting life that you don't ordinarily call upon in your personal life.

Stella Adler

Acting can be the healthiest profession in the world, because it allows you to do things you can't do in real life. It allows you to understand more than just what life provides you.

Stella Adler

You'll begin to act when you can forget your technique - when it is so securely inside you that you need not call upon it consciously.

Stella Adler

The thing that makes you say, "I want to do something" - that is the beginning of talent.

Stella Adler

Acting is in everything but the words.

Stella Adler

You cannot afford to confine your studies to the classroom. The universe and all of history is your classroom.

Stella Adler

Your job as actors is to understand the size of what you say, to understand what's beneath the word.

Stella Adler

Tell yourself that the world is outside, that it's not to be hidden from you, that you are going to thrust yourself forward and be relaxed in the world. You have chosen a field where you're going to be hurt to the blood. But to retreat from the pain ...

Stella Adler

Actors need a kind of aggression, a kind of inner force. Don't be only one-sided, sweet, nice, good. Get rid of being average. Find the killer in you.

Stella Adler

You have to understand your best. Your best isn't Barrymore's best or Olivier's best or my best, but your own. Every person has his norm. And in that norm every person is a star. Olivier could stand on his head and still not be you. Only you can be y...

Stella Adler

You'll never really be great unless you aim high.

Stella Adler

No actor is a success unless he feels inside himself, as long as he lives, that he is good.

Stella Adler

We dress the way we think.

Stella Adler

When you most succeed, you do so by seeming not to act at all.

Stella Adler

You will fail. That's great. Here's a secret for you - that's the only way you can learn. Learning has to cost you something. If you fail but learn something from your failure, you will grow.

Stella Adler

If you can't take both sides, it means you can only play yourself.

Stella Adler

The actor must be full of passion. If he's too cool he's better off as the manager of a company, not someone who appears on the stage.

Stella Adler

Acting requires a creative and compassionate attitude. It must aim to lift life up to a higher level of meaning and not tear it down or demean it. The actor's search is a generous quest for that larger meaning. That's why acting is never to be done p...

Stella Adler

Author Bio

  • NameStella Adler
  • DescriptionAmerican actress and teaching coach
  • BornFebruary 10, 1901
  • DiedDecember 21, 1992
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionActor; Film Actor; Stage Actor