Yael Cohen Quotes

It is now only in letters I write what I feel: not in literature any more, and I seldom say it, because I keep trying to be amusing.

There is a difference, of course, between real sentiment and the trash of shared experience.

Peter would think her sentimental. So she was. For she had come to feel that it was the only thing worth saying – what one felt. Cleverness was silly. One must say simply what one felt.

An actress must be a woman whose emotional perceptions are true, and to make them so, she must have a fine contempt for any art or thought that betrays them for something false.

It is important to express oneself... provided the feelings are real and are taken from your own experience.

True feeling justifies whatever it may cost.

The hardest thing to get is true emotion. I always believe you need to earn that with the audience. You can't just tell them, 'Ok, be sad now.'

Ed is very sexy because his emotions are really there - not forced.

Why can't people just say they were moved? Why do they have to say it's sappy?

I don't think you should try to be anything you're not. If you're not smiling all the time or always happy - I don't think it matters. If you're having bad day, show you're having a bad day. Don't try to put up something that's fake.

Nothing's wrong with honest emotion.

There's a large chunk of me in all the parts. As an actor, I got involved largely because I want to let things out. The best acting is that that is most real and the only way to do that, is to genuinely feel it.

I am only fond of what comes from the heart.

Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don't worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent.

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

It's much easier to cry or be angry, but to really laugh and genuinely be buoyant and laugh. That's hard if you don't really feel that way.

Don't try to write anything you can't feel - it will be a failure - 'echoes nothing worth

If you're striving for strong emotion and strong sentiment, and you're authentic with it and honest with it, then you're on the right side of the line. But if you step into sentimentality, there is a false move or a false tone to it.

If I'm happy, I look happy; if I'm angry, I show it. Without worrying about how others may react.

Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary.

Don't hide your goosebumps.

I try to be genuine. I try to be real. It's such a subjective thing, but I try to convey an emotion.

The nearer emotional life approaches to hysteria, to continual outward show, the less genuine it becomes. Feeling becomes equated with vehemence of expression, so that insincerity becomes permanent.

In interviews, on the set, talking to people, I'll just start talking about my parents' divorce, and go on and on. My mom's always like, 'You don't have to be that honest. You have to be more fake.' You see some of these actors, they have a permanent smile on their face. How can they do that? It really fascinates me.

Never be ashamed of your tears. Be proud that you are still natural. Be proud that you can express the inexpressible through your tears.