28 quotes from the timeless actor, Al Pacino

Tuesday April 25, 2017 , 3 min Read

Since 1970, Oscar-winning actor Al Pacino has taken the audience by storm with his performance in movies such as The Godfather, Dick Tracy, and Serpico. His diversity as a performer has been critically acclaimed over the years. He received an Academy Award for his role in Scent of a Woman. And in 2007, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute.

Here are 28 quotes from this veteran actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter:

“Sometimes it’s better to be with the devil you know than the angel you didn’t know.”
“If you get all tangled up, just tango on.”
“Forget the career, do the work. If you feel what you are doing is on line and you’re going someplace and you have a vision and you stay with it, eventually things will happen.”
“The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful – my personal life suffers.”
“There is no happiness. There is only concentration.”
“I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”
“All I am is what I am going after.”
“My first language was shy. It’s only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.”
“It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart.”
“We live in a world where the more you’re working, the more things you do. It’s a workaday world.”
“The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul, you don’t have a movie,”
“Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow.”
“On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is – can you win or lose like a man?”
“I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.”
“I don't regret anything. I feel like I've made what I would call mistakes. I picked the wrong movie, or I didn't pursue a character, but everything you do is part of you and you get something from it.”
“The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You're in a conversation and everybody's agreeing with what you're saying - even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don't want to hear.”
“Sometimes you're fighting corporations and forget that people can talk to each other.”
“Either I act or I die.”
“Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.”
“The fruit falls off the tree. You don't shake it off before it's ready to fall.”
“If something is working, don't fix it. Keep going. Go with the glow.”
“Man is a little bit better than his reputation, and a little bit worse.”
“If something is working, don't fix it. Keep going. Go with the glow.”
“If you can identify with people, you can empathize with people and therefore you understand things.”
“You'll never be alone if you’ve got a book.”
“I believe in one day at a time; you've got TODAY, that's what you've got.”
“I am more alive in the theatre than anywhere else, but what I take into the theatre I get from the streets.”
“Everything changes with age. The parts change with age, your feelings about them change, roles that I would've wanted to play 10 years ago, I don't want to play now.”