Al Pacino quotes
Born
April 25, 1940, New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation
Actor.
Al Pacino is an American actor and filmmaker. Pacino has had a career spanning over five decades, during which time he has received numerous accolades and honors both competitive and honorary.
Movies
88 Minutes (2007)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Heat (1995)
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (2019)
Scarface (1983)
Scent of a Woman (1992)
I’ve often said there’s two kinds of actors. There’s a more gregarious type and the shy type.
– Al Pacino
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
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
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
I used to wear disguises, like hats and false beards, just to walk around and avoid attention.
– Al Pacino
My grandmother always came to my shows. She was always concerned about the way I dressed – even later on, when I was well known and I supported her.
– Al Pacino
It’s easy to fool the eye but it’s hard to fool the heart.
– Al Pacino
I don’t ever give my opinion. Opinions I have about anything are in my personal life.
– Al Pacino
I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.
– Al Pacino
Some of the roles that are challenging are more in theater and TV. In movies, there’s a tendency to cast actors in roles that have been successful for them. It has to pay for itself.
– Al Pacino
I’ve never liked the recognition, the questions, the publicity. I have often felt like running away and hiding.
– Al Pacino
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
The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful – my personal life suffers.
– Al Pacino
The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I’m talking about.
– Al Pacino
There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life.
– Al Pacino
Did you know I started out as a stand-up comic? People don’t believe me when I tell them. That’s how I saw myself, in comedy.
– Al Pacino
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
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
I don’t need bodyguards. I’m from the South Bronx.
– Al Pacino
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
There are a lot of roles in Shakespeare, basically. If I feel that the script is a movie, I would be interested in doing any role of Shakespeare’s.
– Al Pacino
You do get very tired sometimes, when you’re sitting around for hours in movies. You get depleted.
– Al Pacino
I’m so shy now I wear sunglasses everywhere I go.
– Al Pacino
Vanity is my favourite sin.
– Al Pacino
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
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
Shakespeare’s plays are more violent than ‘Scarface.’
– Al Pacino
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
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
It would be hard to play a character you don’t like – for me anyway – or can’t find something in them to like.
– Al Pacino
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
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
Theater for me at one point was a lifestyle, too.
– Al Pacino