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Al Pacino Quotes

Powerful Al Pacino for Daily Growth

Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie.

- Al Pacino

Movie, Cut, Rough, Ford

That's where humour lives for me. In the body. The Steve Martin kind of stuff or Jim Carrey, that's what I like. I've always felt that's what I would like to do.

- Al Pacino

Always, Steve Martin, Lives, Steve

I don't think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You've got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition's an opportunity to have an audience.

- Al Pacino

Think, Audience, Role, Audition

When I was younger, I would go to auditions to have the opportunity to audition, which would mean another chance to get up there and try out my stuff, or try out what I learned and see how it worked with an audience, because where are you gonna get an audience?

- Al Pacino

Out, Another, Auditions, Audition

At this point in my career, I don't have to deal with audition rejections. So I get my rejection from other things. My children can make me feel rejected. They can humble you pretty quick.

- Al Pacino

Humble, Career, Deal, Audition

I remember acting in a school play about the melting pot when I was very little. There was a great big pot onstage. On the other side of the pot was a little girl who had dark hair, and she and I were representing the Italians. And I thought: Is that what an Italian looked like?

- Al Pacino

Play, Big, Very, Italian

My weaknesses... I wish I could come up with something. I'd probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they're the same thing.

- Al Pacino

I Wish, Maybe, Same Thing, Asked

You need some insecurity if you're an actor. It keeps the pot boiling. I haven't yet started to think about retiring. I was shocked when I heard about Paul Newman retiring at age 82. Most actors just fade away like old soldiers.

- Al Pacino

Some, Away, Paul Newman, Boiling

When I was a younger actor, I would try to keep it serious all day. But I have found, later on, that the lighter I am about things when I'm going to do a big scene that's dramatic and takes a lot out of you, the better off I am when I come to it.

- Al Pacino

Big, About, Scene, Lighter

My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After World War II he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn't know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother.

- Al Pacino

College, Insurance, Became, Salesman

There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life.

- Al Pacino

My Life, Been, Lot, Events

The truth is, you know, we need our anodynes. You know that word, anodynes? We need that in life some times. A good warm bath can be one for you, or a whatever.

- Al Pacino

Need, Some, Our, Bath

I like, for instance, 'Serpico.' I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could - I could embody him. I could, you know, I could work and get to know him and have him help me with the text, the script and become him. It's almost like a painter having a model to become.

- Al Pacino

Frank, Instance, Almost, Embody

I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.

- Al Pacino

Swimming, Actor, Hollywood, Pools

I've never cared for guns. In fact, when I did 'Scent of a Woman' I had to learn how to assemble one.

- Al Pacino

Woman, Fact, Guns, Scent

I don't need bodyguards. I'm from the South Bronx.

- Al Pacino

Need, Bronx, South, Bodyguards

It surprised me, the feeling I got when I won the Oscar for 'Scent of a Woman.' It was a new feeling. I'd never felt it. I don't see my Oscar much now. But when I first got it, there was a feeling for weeks afterward that I guess is akin to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.

- Al Pacino

Woman, Got, Weeks, Surprised

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.

- Al Pacino

Famous, Tell, Everybody, Conversation

In America most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

- Al Pacino

Everybody, Mostly, Half, Dose

Most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

- Al Pacino

Everybody, Mostly, Half, Dose

I do believe, and I will always believe, that Shakespeare on film is really something that should be tried more often because it is an opportunity to take the humanity that Shakespeare writes into characters and express it.

- Al Pacino

Will, More, Always, Writes

I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.

- Al Pacino

Me, Prepared, Hit, Cope

My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.

- Al Pacino

Shy, Been, Having, Cope

I've always been in the theater. I've always gone to it. That's been my way to cope. Early on in my career, I remember running - fleeing - to the theater as a way of coping with all the meshugaas that was going on for me.

- Al Pacino

I Remember, Always, Been, Cope

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.

- Al Pacino

Part, About, Disrupted, Possibly

You do get very tired sometimes, when you're sitting around for hours in movies. You get depleted.

- Al Pacino

Movies, Very, Depleted, Sitting

Explain to me what Italian-American culture is. We've been here 100 years. Isn't Italian-American culture American culture? That's because we're so diverse, in terms of intermarriage.

- Al Pacino

Here, Explain, Been, Diverse

It's never really that much fun for me to do movies anyway, because you - you know, you have to get up very early in the morning and you have to go in and you spend a lot of time waiting around.

- Al Pacino

Waiting, Go, Very, Early

Jamie Foxx does a good rendition of me. It's a real gift, mimicry of that kind, the tonal thing. It's sort of like having a talent for playing an instrument.

- Al Pacino

Gift, Like, Having, Jamie

Theater for me at one point was a lifestyle, too.

- Al Pacino

Me, Theater, Too, Lifestyle

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