Play well, or play badly, but play truly.

The theatre infects the audience with its noble ecstasy.

In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant.

I was born an ordinary actor. I will die an ordinary actor. But I've persisted.

In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play; the mother, the actor pregnant with the part; and the child, the role to be born.

We have as many planes of speech as does a painting planes of perspective which create perspective in a phrase. The most important word stands out most vividly defined in the very foreground of the sound plane. Less important words create a series of deeper planes.

Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.