Michael Shurtleff

Often actors ask me if I think they should go on trying to be an actor. I have the same answer for…

— Michael Shurtleff

That's why there's so little romance in our world now: everyone thinks romance is weak.

— Michael Shurtleff

There's only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them.

— Michael Shurtleff

“Conflict is drama.”

— Michael Shurtleff

Consistency is the death of good acting.

— Michael Shurtleff

Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.

— Michael Shurtleff

If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going.

— Michael Shurtleff

We don't live for realities, but for the fantasies, the dreams of what might be. If we lived for reality, we'd be…

— Michael Shurtleff

Everyone thinks romance is weak. Yet romance is everyone's secret dream-it's why we're alive.

— Michael Shurtleff

Humor [in a scene] is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped…

— Michael Shurtleff

Every scene is a love scene. The actor should ask the question: 'Where is the love?'

— Michael Shurtleff

Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes…

— Michael Shurtleff

An actor must make his needs (goals, wants, objectives) so strong that he is willing to interfere with the other actor in…

— Michael Shurtleff

Competition [in a scene] is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They…

— Michael Shurtleff

Competition is healthy. Competition is life. Yet most actors refuse to acknowledge this. They don't want to compete. They want to get…

— Michael Shurtleff

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

— Michael Shurtleff

Humor is an attitude, a survivor’s way of looking at life. It’s not about telling jokes.

— Michael Shurtleff

The life of an actor is a bit easier to take if you admit you're bonkers.

— Michael Shurtleff

No matter how much we know about the other person, there is always something going on in that other heart and that…

— Michael Shurtleff

Acting in theatre or television or screen is only for the irrecoverably diseased, those so smitten with the need that there is…

— Michael Shurtleff

Listening is not merely hearing. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is active.

— Michael Shurtleff

Listening is not merely hearing, it is receiving the message that is being sent to you. Listening is reacting. Listening is being…

— Michael Shurtleff

The actor needs to find out what the basic fight is in every character in every scene.

— Michael Shurtleff

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

— Michael Shurtleff

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

— Michael Shurtleff