Quotes by Antony Sher

About Antony Sher:

Sir Antony Sher is a South African-born British actor, and twice winner of the Laurence Olivier Award. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and TV, and working as a writer and theatre director. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood’s play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles. Sher and his partner and collaborator Gregory Doran became one of the first gay couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I have a Woody Allen Jewish attitude to life: that it's all going to be disastrous. That it hasn't all been that way is simply down to some random quirk of fate.

Antony Sher

Ciss says, 'People have less emotions than actors think they have. For much of the time we hide our emotions, we haven't time for emotions. Our brains work so much faster than our emotions.

Antony Sher

Why is an actor's unintentional giggling called a 'corpse'? It seems to me quite the opposite. It proves that he's very much alive, and can still tell how silly this all is: him dressed up as someone else speaking words written by a third party.

Antony Sher

Michael Caine should have the last word on the reviews: 'What about those reviews then?' 'I don't read them.' 'Don't read them? You them didn't you?

Antony Sher

I've been quoting the book [on Peter Sutcliffe] constantly in rehearsals. Some members of the cast have stated their disapproval that it should even have been written. Some of the women have expressed more - disgust and anger. What are they saying? T...

Antony Sher

I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more.

Antony Sher

The of learning. It's the same when you approach any new skill or technique, from a dance step to driving a car. The effort of learning stops you, at first, from doing it well.

Antony Sher

This is a familiar syndrome. There is a stage with every drawing or painting when it looks banal and clumsy. It's worth pushing through that, working through the cliché to find out what made it a cliché in the first place.

Antony Sher

Reading Shakespeare is sometimes like looking through a window into a dark room. You don't see in. You see nothing but a reflection of yourself unable to see in. An unflattering image of yourself blind.

Antony Sher

As a gay Jewish white South African, I belong to quite a lot of minority groups. You constantly have to question who you are, what you are and whether you have the courage to be who you are.

Antony Sher

Most of my career has been spent with the RSC doing Shakespeare, and the thing you learn from Shakespeare is that his historical plays don't bear anything other than a basic resemblance to history.

Antony Sher

It's good for actors to confront those things we have to act: panic, pain and death.

Antony Sher

I never regret things. It's a really dangerous thing to say, but for anyone involved in the arts, the bad things that happen make for good material. It's not a comfortable truth, but it is true.

Antony Sher

A lot of good actors tend to be quite introverted as people.

Antony Sher

I was a weak kid, not good at what all the boys at school were good at and I found that by acting, by being other people, I could liberate myself from those inadequacies.

Antony Sher

Life is just more comfortable if you're honest and open about everything. I spent so many years being in the closet about one thing or another.

Antony Sher

I love playing outsiders, I always do.

Antony Sher

I love the mixture that's in me. It makes me me. And that's why it's such a shame that people waste energy in denying who they are.

Antony Sher

I'm a huge fan of David Hockney. I love the way he keeps reinventing himself.

Antony Sher

I have no cynicism at all.

Antony Sher

Author Bio

  • NameAntony Sher
  • DescriptionSouth African-born British actor, writer and theatre director
  • BornJune 14, 1949
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionActor; Author; Novelist
  • AwardsLaurence Olivier Award; Knight Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire