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Most of the stone a nation hammers goes toward its tomb only. It buries itself alive. As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs. Henry David Thoreau		Thursday Oct 16, 2025
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Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it. Sir Laurence Kerr, Baron Olivier of Brighton

Quote Author: Sir Laurence Kerr, Baron Olivier of Brighton

	Sir Laurence Kerr, Baron Olivier of Brighton
	(1907-1989) Interview at age 72; in New York Times, 27 Feb 1980 - English film & stage actor, director, producer, one of finest of century, Oscars.

Other Sir Laurence Kerr, Baron Olivier of Brighton Quotes

I'm rather bored by the subject meaning me. It's a sort of a yoke, but at times you know, a yoke is a kind of comfort. And it's always there.

Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it.

We ape, we mimic, we mock. We act.

The actor should be able to create the universe in the palm of his hand.

On resentment at his forced retirement from the stage after he was fired by Britains National Theater, I should be soaring away with my head tilted slightly toward the gods, feeding on the caviar of Shakespeare. An actor must act.

On resentment at his forced retirement from the stage after he was fired by Britains National Theater, My stage successes have provided me with the greatest moments outside myself, my film successes the best moments, professionally, within myself.

I often think that could we creep behind the actors eyes, we would find an attic of forgotten toys and a copy of the Domesday Book.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Robert Brustein on Laurence Olivier as Hamlet in a 1948 film: Olivier's idea of introspection was to hood his eyes, dentalize his consonants and let the camera circle his blondined head like a sparrow looking for a place to deposit its droppings.

On belief that John Gielgud was infatuated with his own voice: If he was lost for a moment, he would dive straight back into its honey.

Lead the audience by the nose to the thought.

I take a simple view of life: keep your eyes open and get on with it.

Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms. I said that some time ago, and today I do not think I would add one word.

I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still arepoliticians, playboys, cardinals and kings.