Al Pacino quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Al Pacino

Al Pacino Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Al Pacino on Wise Famous Quotes.

Shakespeare's plays are more violent than 'Scarface.'

An actor basically likes to be asked to do something, no matter what position he's in. It feels more natural. Sitting and waiting is more gratifying.

I don't need bodyguards. I'm from the South Bronx.

It's not personal, it's strictly business

You don't get to know anybody in a movie until after it's over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage.

Great directors can understand the staging in such a way that can make a scene come alive. Others have a certain way of pacing the scene.

If you have the opportunity to meet someone as an actor, it's just great fodder for you. It's wonderful source stuff that we die for.

I used to say I wanted to genuflect to a woman, put her up on a pedestal higher and higher, way up beyond my grasp ... Then I'd find another one.

Theater for me at one point was a lifestyle, too.

There are a lot of roles in Shakespeare, basically. If I feel that the script is a movie, I would be interested in doing any role of Shakespeare's.

Man is a little bit better than his reputation, and a little bit worse

You'll never be alone if you've got a book.

I turned down a lot of films before I made my first one. I knew that it was time for me to get into movies.

I want to be interesting in an interview just as much as I want to do well in a part.

I believe in one day at a time; you've got TODAY, that's what you' ve got.

Our life is looking forward or looking back, that's it. Where is the moment?

Responsibilities are relative. My responsibility is to a character in a script, to a part I'm playing.

Either we heal now, as a team, or we will die as individuals.

My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.

A kiss is a lusty dollop of dessert to be served with desire and savored with passion.

Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.

I hope the perception is that I'm an actor, I never intended to be a movie star.

It wasn't until I got older that I realized acting was something I could really do.

I am more alive in the theater than anywhere else, but what I take into the theater I get from the streets.

I'm so shy now I wear sunglasses everywhere I go.

I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.

Drinking and smoking grass were a part of my life as far back as I can remember.

Certainly the movies were always in the air for me. I come from the era when actors thought it was a big deal to be in the movies.

Freedom, baby, is never having to say youre sorry.

The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful - my personal life suffers.

On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is
can you win or lose like a man?

If something is working, don't fix it. Keep going. Go with the glow.

Did you know I started out as a stand-up comic? People don't believe me when I tell them. That's how I saw myself, in comedy.

Love goes through different stages. But it endures.

We live in a world where the more you're working, the more things you do. It's a workaday world.

It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard to fool the heart.

There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life.

You do get very tired sometimes, when you're sitting around for hours in movies. You get depleted.

The fruit falls off the tree. You don't shake it off before it's ready to fall.

The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul, you don't have a movie,

Vanity is my favourite sin.

I come from the South Bronx - a true descendant of the melting pot. I grew up in a really mixed neighborhood; it was a very integrated life.

I learned to wrestle, I learned defensive fighting at a young age, because when someone hit me, I would throw up and fall down.

Learning (Shakespeare's plays) ... in school was a bit of a bore.

I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.

One of the things that made me want to be an actor more than ever was seeing a Chekhov play, "The Sea Gull," when was 14 in the Bronx.

Sometimes you're fighting corporations and forget that people can talk to each other.

The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.

I love work because it keeps sex in perspective. Otherwise, it can become a preoccupation.

I was never very happy with performing; it didn't turn me on much.

Sometimes the only way you can get an audience is at an audition.

The difference between the actor and the painter is that the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act.

I've never liked the recognition, the questions, the publicity. I have often felt like running away and hiding.

Without coffee something's missing

I want to be a great actor someday, and I've decided there's no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft.

Actually, the person I related to was James Dean. I grew up with the Dean thing. Rebel Without A Cause had a very powerful effect on me.

There was a time in my life when being dishonest with women was the natural way to be. I finally said, "Hey, I have to stop this silliness."

Be careful how you judge people, most of all friends. You don't sum up a man's life in one moment.

I've often said there's two kinds of actors. There's a more gregarious type and the shy type.

The thing that can get you a little upset is when people say other people are better than you. That can bug you.

Attica! Attica! Attica!

That's the way to live - around people who care. It may be a tough ride, but something is going to come out of it.

It would be hard to play a character you don't like - for me anyway - or can't find something in them to like.

All I am is what I'm going after.

I didn't go for the needle at all. I never cared for drugs, because I saw what they did to most people. I thought that was the end of the road.

Either I act or I die.

Show me a bad script and I will show you a big payday.

My grandmother always came to my shows. She was always concerned about the way I dressed - even later on, when I was well known and I supported her.

When you're reading some of the great plays, when you do what I call "taking up with a writer," something happens.

Vanity: my favorite sin.

Money makes your life easier. If you're lucky to have it, you're lucky.

Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow.

I went to Performing Arts because that was the only school that would accept me. My scholastic level was not very high.

If you get all tangled up, just tango on.

Sometimes it's better to be with the devil u know than the angel u didn't know

A lot of acting is private time.

They say we die twice - once when the last breath leaves our body and once when the last person we know says our name.

You never open your mouth until you know what the shot is.

I don't talk politics and I don't talk philosophy or anything like that, but if you look at my work, you might get an expression of me as a person.

Actors are always outsiders. It's necessary to be able to interpret - and that gets distorted when you become famous.

I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

There is no happiness. There is only concentration.

I'm constantly striving to break through to something new. You try to maintain a neutral approach to your work, and not be too hard on yourself.

What's this thing that gets between us and Shakespeare?

I'm always on a red carpet ... the other day I thought, this ain't bad. You can meet people on it.

I don't ever give my opinion. Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life.

Take a look at Israel's history and you would know who the terrorist is.

[Marlon] Brando's a giant on every level. When he acts it's as if he landed from another planet. A planet where they produce great actors.

The literal, basic thing of the stage is really like a magnet. It brings me back to earth.

It turned out that time doesn't heal the wound , but in its so merciful way , blunts the edges ever so slightly

Romantic love can be a lot of crap, though, let me tell you. And it can hurt you.

Sometimes what we imagine and the world aren't different things. Sometimes they are the same exact thing.

I used to wear disguises, like hats and false beards, just to walk around and avoid attention.

The World Is Yours

The only thing in this world that gives orders is balls.

Chekhov was as important to me as anybody as a writer.

Love is overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate

Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it.

I've never cared for guns. In fact, when I did 'Scent of a Woman' I had to learn how to assemble one.