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
It took me two years to walk around a chair with ease; it took me another two years to learn how to laugh onstage – and I had to learn everything. – Laurence Olivier
Nobody is going to pretend that I am younger than I am. Apart from anything else, it is in the papers all the damn time – every time I have a birthday. – Laurence Olivier
I suppose, unconsciously, I used all my wives to further my journey up the ladder. – 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
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
When you’re a young man, Macbeth is a character part. When you’re older, it’s a straight part. – Laurence Olivier
My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself. – Laurence Olivier
Nine books have been written about me, and there’s not a word of truth in any of them. – 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
‘Richard III’ is a really difficult play to film – it’s involved, often obscure. I felt it absolutely necessary to do more simplification than I’ve ever done before. – 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
We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are – politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings. – 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
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 points of the compass. – Laurence Olivier
I can’t think I’ve ever loved anybody quite as much… My mother was my life, really; she was my entire world. – Laurence Olivier
Acting is a masochistic form of exhibitionism. It is not quite the occupation of an adult. – Laurence Olivier
