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.
AL PACINOBrian De Palma, standing there alone by the surf and they were all waiting for him. And I never forgot that because it represented to me what a director is, what a director does.
More Al Pacino Quotes
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What kind of failure was it? A failure because it’s misunderstood by others? A failure because you misunderstood it yourself?
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I like, for instance, ‘Serpico.’ I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could – I could embody him. I could, you know.
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Chekhov was as important to me as anybody as a writer.
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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.
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Forget the career, do the work. If you feel what you are doing is on line and you’re going someplace and you have a vision and you stay with it, eventually things will happen.
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I’m much more a European Italian than I am an American Italian, and I’ve always felt that that style of acting comedy is in me.
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I try to get some friends together and read a script aloud. Sometimes I read scripts and record them and play them back to see if there’s a movie.
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Jamie Foxx does a good rendition of me. It’s a real gift, mimicry of that kind, the tonal thing. It’s sort of like having a talent for playing an instrument.
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I went back to the stage because it was my way of dealing with the success I had, my way of coping.
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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.
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I understand the directors much more. I was always rebelling against them when I was a youngster, I didn’t want to be told what to do. I had no identification.
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Sometimes they are the same exact thing.
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The literal, basic thing of the stage is really like a magnet. It brings me back to earth.
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It’s not personal, it’s strictly business
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I probably write a poem every 50 years.
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