Peter Riegert Quotes

Sometimes the writing can be so good that the actor doesn't really have to do anything.

Acting has to do with saying it as if you meant it, so for me the words are always very important. It's very important for me to know my lines, know them so well that I don't have to think about them.

I think the actor has two responsibilities. One is to be visually compelling, and the other to recite the lines as written by the writers.

As an actor I can bring the story, the narrative in each performance. If I can't do that, then… might as well give up as an actor, hadn't I?

There's the truth to every moment that you have to bring to every scene, but you have to understand the tonality of the film before you begin, which isn't something that's instinctual to me.

Theatre is the principal job of an actor. An actor's job is to tell a story to someone in a room. TV and film can be great and I really love doing it, but it is a different way of telling a story.

For any role, I pretty much always go to the script, first and foremost.

You can have good writing, but a great actor will make it feel and sound like great writing. You can have great writing, and mediocre actors will make it feel mediocre. Without the actors, you have nothing.

As an actor you become that lighting rod between the person who made the play and the audience.

I'm always amazed when any actor can decipher my direction.

The art of acting is to pitch good. You do the pitching and hope that the other person catches the ball and does some good pitching back to you.

I think basically an actor is a salesman.

I just want the actors to put their faith in the language. Just let the words do the work.

When you see something that is well-written, the actors can get behind it.

I am a professional actor, and I don't go about moralizing about what the character does. Otherwise, seriously, why be an actor? You're not making some kind of social statement. That's not what actors do.

For me really good acting is about subtext.

I'm an infant with Shakespeare; I'm kind of learning how to walk. I am trying to decipher the code, you know? I do my research. And I get a clear understanding of what the language is. It is a tremendous process I have to go through as I am sure all actors do, finding the gems hidden in his language.

The trouble with talking about acting is that it's like sex. It's enormously fun to do but just dreadfully embarrassing when you have to talk about it.

I don't believe you can get into somebody's character but more that somebody comes in you. You just use yourself. In everything I play, I feel like it is me. I just say different things on different times and look different.

An actor's job is about putting across the author's intention; I don't think of myself on the same level as a creator.

Good acting is all in the writing. If it isn't on the page, then it really won't make any difference. You cannot act on force of personality alone.

You know when you've found a part that you want to play. You know it because the part takes you over. It sits in the script waiting for you to play him.

The play is not in the words, it's in you!

But I would like to think that it's the actor that makes the difference in these cases. Not the director, not the guy that wrote the book, not the guy that adapted it for the screen, but the actor.

Quite often in acting, you have to play a certain part; you cannot speak as much as you want to speak.