Charles Dance Quotes

Onstage I'm the happiest person in the world.

Acting is fun, but directing is very stressful.

Maybe I just wasn't a show-biz type. I didn't miss performing at all.

I grew up doing sitcoms and theater and even playing with the Beach Boys, where you're programmed to perform, your body gets into a rhythm and you know it has to perform.

I need to do more on stage. I've got to get my fix!

I wanted to be a performer, not someone who introduced other performers.

I did Shakespeare in college, and the nerves I got doing Shakespeare are the same nerves I get doing 'Mad Men.' I want to get the dialogue just spot-on.

I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe.

Performing is my passion. Being onstage is at once exhilarating, beguiling, and fulfilling. But it's hard.

I feel real confidence in working on the stage.

I think I want to pursue a movie career and maybe even pursue some theatre.

Being on stage a lot is quite physical.

My act is always a work in progress. I pray I have a bad day before a show.

I never felt I left the stage.

Being an actor is great; you chill in your trailer, and they bring you a breakfast burrito and coffee. But as director, you're responsible for every little thing.

I prefer film to the stage. I always like the rehearsal better than I like performing.

The play is on top of me all the time, and I am constantly thinking about it. Even when I leave the theatre, I'll mumble the lines to myself or think about the way the character walks or holds himself.

Being an actress, I find myself people-watching and I can be quite shy.

If I could live a parallel life, I would be a sitcom star; being in front of a live audience would be great.

Nothing is real until you walk out on stage.

I think if I'd have been an actor who didn't care, I'd have less gray hair, and I'd be a lot less tired.

When I was doing 'A Raisin in the Sun' with Sean Combs, we began in bed, and he would give me 10 kisses and an 11th for luck before the play began.

Stand up is the most stressful, and hosting and presenting a show has its own stresses, because you've got an audience which you've got to entertain as well as an audience at home.

I never mind going in for an audition for something.

I started off doing theater as a kid, and I always played a character. I hid behind the script and was told where to go. But to actually perform as yourself is very difficult. I didn't used to enjoy it, but now I do.