To go into acting is like asking for admission to an insane asylum. Anyone may apply, but only the certifiably insane are admitted.

Humor [in a scene] is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the 59th Street Bridge.

Take nothing for granted. Make an emotional discovery as often as you can find one in every scene. Ask yourself: What is new?

Whatever you decide is your motivation in the scene, the opposite of that is also true and should be in it.

The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.

Competition is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get along. And they are therefore not first-rate actors. The good actor is the one who competes, willingly, who enjoys competing. An actor must compete, or die...Peacefulness and the avoidance of trouble won't help in his acting. It is just the opposite he must seek.

An expression of feeling isn't worth anything unless it interferes with what the other actor in the scene wants.