Laurence Olivier Thinking Quotations

Art is a little bit larger than life - it's an exhalation of life and I think you probably need a little touch of madness.

You must have - besides intuition and sensitivity - a cutting edge that allows you to reach what you need. Also, you have to know life - bastards included - and it takes a bit of one to know one, don't you think?

You think you're an artist; prove it

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.

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.

If I wasn't an actor, I think I'd have gone mad. You have to have extra voltage, some extra temperament to reach certain heights.

No matter how well you perform, there's always somebody of intelligent opinion who thinks it's lousy.