The collection / 17 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

SearchTypeTopicEraCulture / collection labelCountry attributionTraditionOrder

Author

Leave empty for every voice. Browse all authors ↗

Culture labels and country attributions follow the source collections; earliest origins may be unknown.

17 results · Page 1 of 1Play this collection ▷

01Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

02Undated

You should want to act only because you want to be led to something bigger in life.

Stella Adler / quote

03Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

04Undated

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 you. What a privilege! Nobody can reach what you can if you do it. So do it. We need your best, your voice, your body. We don't need for you to imitate anybody, because that would be second best. And second best is no better than your worst.

Stella Adler / quote

05Undated

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 / quote

06Undated

You will only fail to learn if you do not learn from failing.

Stella Adler / quote

07Undated

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 / quote

08Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

09Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

10Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

11Undated

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

Stella Adler / quote

12Undated

Be innocent, wise and ninety-five.

Stella Adler / quote

13Undated

The best author is a dead author, because he's out of your way and you own the play. Take what he has given you and use it for what you need.

Stella Adler / quote

14Undated

The imagination is closer to the actor than real life-more agreeable, more comfortable.

Stella Adler / quote

15Undated

The actor cannot afford to look only to his own life for all his material nor pull strictly from his own experience to find his acting choices and feelings.

Stella Adler / quote

16Undated

The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.

Stella Adler / quote

17Undated

The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.

Stella Adler / quote