Noel Coward

Acting is not a state of being ... but a state of appearing to be. You can't be eight times a week without going stark staring mad. You've got to be in control.

I don't believe in astrology. The only stars I can blame for my failures are those that walk about the stage.

Goodnight, my darlings, I'll see you tomorrow.

It's no use to go and take courses in playwriting any more than it's much use taking courses in acting. Better play to a bad matinée in Hull, it will teach you much more than a year of careful instruction.

But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?

Never mind, dear, we're all made the same, though some more than others.

Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.

People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it.

I'll go through life either first class or third, but never in second.

I will accept anything in the theatre . . . provided it amuses or moves me. But if it does neither, I want to go home.

Familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity it's impossible to breed anything.

An infant prodigy of nine is shoved upon the stage in white. She starts off in a dismal whine about a dark and stormy night, a burglar, whose heart is true, despite his wicked-looking face, who puts the little child in doom, to save her mamma's jewel case. This may bring tears to every eye; it does not set my heart on fire. I'd like to stand serenely by and watch that horrid child expire.

I'll go and see anything so long as it amuses me, or moves me. If it doesn't do either I want to go home.

You kissed me because you were awfully nice and I was awfully nice and we both liked kissing very much. It was inevitable.

What I adore is supreme professionalism. I’m bored by writers who can write only when it’s raining.

Thousands of people have talent. I might as well congratulate you for having eyes in your head. The one and only thing that counts is: Do you have staying power?

My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.