Bad actors try to cry, and good actors try not to. Bad actors try to laugh, and good actors try not to.
Martin LandauRead
I started teaching when I was in my 20s because Lee Strasberg asked me to, and he didn't do that with a lot of people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Teaching is a privilege that not everyone receives, and it often comes through unique opportunities.
In this quote, Martin Landau reflects on the special occasion of being asked to teach by Lee Strasberg, a renowned acting teacher and director. It highlights the significance of mentorship and the rare chance to influence others in their educational journey, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and seizing such moments when they arise.
Themes
TeachingMentorshipEducationOpportunityInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
You can use this quote in a speech about the importance of mentorship in education.
More from Martin Landau
All quotes βI run the Actor's Studio on the West Coast, and one of the things I say all the time to the people I teach - many of whom are acting teachers - is that an actor needs to make choices that make him present.
Martin LandauRead
I studied with Strasberg, Elia Kazan. They raised the bar. They weren't easy to please, and they made you achieve the best you could do. That's what a teacher does: he infuses you with passion for something.
Martin LandauRead
As a Jew, there's a need to keep that atrocity alive. There were Catholics and gypsies and homosexuals who died in the Holocaust, too. It's amazing that people allowed this slaughter to take place. There's a need to make these films and reiterate it happened.
Martin LandauRead
I love to see lack of clarity in a performance as well as clarity, as well as trust, as well as the kinds of things that human beings go through. I love to see spontaneity and 'inevitability.' How it gets there is going to shock the hell out of me, but it will get there somehow.
Martin LandauRead
People think I'm a very serious actor, which I am. But you know, if you don't have a sense of humor doing what I do, you perish.
Martin LandauRead
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