57 Quotes by Al Pacino
Al Pacino is one of the most iconic actors of his generation, known for his intense performances and unforgettable characters. He has starred in some of the most celebrated films of all time, including The Godfather trilogy, Scarface, and Scent of a Woman, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Pacino has been recognized as one of the greatest actors of all time, with a career spanning more than five decades and numerous accolades to his name. He continues to captivate audiences with his incredible range and talent, and remains a beloved figure in the world of film and entertainment. (Bio)
Al Pacino Quotes
It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard to fool the heart. (Meaning)
Be careful how you judge people, most of all friends. You don't sum up a man's life in one moment.
I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
I believe in one day at a time; you've got TODAY, that's what you' ve got.
I like women who can cook. That's first. Love is very important, but you've got to have a friend first - you want to finally come to a point where you say that the women you're with is also your friend.
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.
Look, but don't touch. Touch, but don't taste. Taste, but don't swallow.
Forget the career, do the work. If you feel what you are doing is on line and you're going someplace and you have a vision and you stay with it, eventually things will happen.
They say we die twice - once when the last breath leaves our body and once when the last person we know says our name.
There is only one way of surviving all the early heartbreaks in this business. You must have a sense of humor. And I think it also helps if you are a dreamer. I had my dreams all right. And that is something no one can ever take away. They cost nothing, and they can be as real as you like to make them. You own your dreams and they are priceless. I've been a lavatory attendant, a theatre usher, a panhandler, all for real. Now, as an actor, I can be a journalist today and a brain surgeon tomorrow. That's the stuff my dreams are made of.
The camera can film my face but until it captures my soul, you don't have a movie.
Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it.
Love is overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate
My best advice to any young person is, if you want kids, be careful who you have them with. That's my mantra.
Freedom, baby, is never having to say youre sorry.
The fruit falls off the tree. You don't shake it off before it's ready to fall.
If something is working, don't fix it. Keep going. Go with the glow.
Our life is looking forward or looking back, that's it. Where is the moment?
Love goes through different stages. But it endures.
There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is -- can you win or lose like a man?
Show me a bad script and I will show you a big payday.
Sometimes what we imagine and the world aren't different things. Sometimes they are the same exact thing.
It used to worry me what people said about me. I'm learning not to worry as much. Sometimes you feel critics are wrong all the time, but I don 't take objection to it, because that's the way it goes. They can be wrong, they can be right. They can be cruel, they can be kind.
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.
That's the way to live - around people who care. It may be a tough ride, but something is going to come out of it.
I love work because it keeps sex in perspective. Otherwise, it can become a preoccupation.
If you can identify with people, you can empathize with people and therefore you understand things.
It turned out that time doesn't heal the wound , but in its so merciful way , blunts the edges ever so slightly
Sometimes the only way you can get an audience is at an audition.
We start to realize that there are anodynes in life that help us through the day. I don't care if it's a walk in the park, a look out the window, a good bubble bath - whatever. Even a meal you like, or a friend you want to call. That helps us solve all this stuff in our head.
There was a time in my life when being dishonest with women was the natural way to be. I finally said, "Hey, I have to stop this silliness."
Actually, the person I related to was James Dean. I grew up with the Dean thing. Rebel Without A Cause had a very powerful effect on me.
A kiss is a lusty dollop of dessert to be served with desire and savored with passion.
You sharpen the human appetite to the point where it can split atoms with its desire; you build egos the size of cathedrals; fiber-optically connect the world to every eager impulse; grease even the dullest dreams with these dollar-green, gold-plated fantasies, until every human becomes an aspiring emperor, becomes his own God... and where can you go from there?
I don’t understand the hatred and fear of gays and bisexuals and lesbians… it’s a concept I honestly cannot grasp. To me, it’s not who you love… a man, a woman, what have you… it’s the fact that you love. That is all that truly matters.
Sometimes you're fighting corporations and forget that people can talk to each other.
Failure's relative. I've always felt, even early on, if I lose the freedom to fail, something's not right about that. It's how you treat failure, too. There's something to learn from it. I've had movies that have failed colossally, so you kind of analyze your failures: What kind of failure was it? A failure because it's misunderstood by others? A failure because you misunderstood it yourself?
I like, for instance, 'Serpico.' I enjoyed playing Serpico because Frank Serpico was there. He existed. He was a real life person and I could - I could embody him. I could, you know, I could work and get to know him and have him help me with the text, the script and become him. It's almost like a painter having a model to become.
I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.
I don't regret anything. I feel like I've made what I would call mistakes. I picked the wrong movie, or I didn't pursue a character, but everything you do is part of you and you get something from it.
There are a couple of times I would've liked to have married. I think I made a mistake, especially once.
A lot of actors choose parts by the scripts, but I don't trust reading the scripts that much. I try to get some friends together and read a script aloud. Sometimes I read scripts and record them and play them back to see if there's a movie. It's very evocative; it's like a first cut because you hear 'She walked to the door,' and you visualize all these things. 'She opens the door' . . . because you read the stage directions, too.
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. (Meaning)
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.
In America 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.
I'm not a violent person, never was, but I have this temperament that I've always displayed. I guess it has to do with my tradition and being Italian, we're very outgoing with our emotions.
I found out how temperamental I am, yes. And that sometimes that can be kind of off-putting.
The thing is doing it, that's what it's all about. Not in the results of it. After all what is a risk? It's a risk not to take risks. Otherwise, you can go stale and repeat yourself. I don't feel like a person who takes risks. Yet there's something within me that must provoke controversy because I find it wherever I go. Anybody who cares about what he does takes risks.
When I was doing 'Scarface,' I remember being in love at that time. One of the few times in my life. And I was so glad it was at that time. I would come home and she would tell me about her life that day and all her problems and I remember saying to her, look, you really got me through this picture because I would shed everything when I came home.
I don't talk politics and I don't talk philosophy or anything like that, but if you look at my work, you might get an expression of me as a person.
I learned to wrestle, I learned defensive fighting at a young age, because when someone hit me, I would throw up and fall down.
When I was a younger actor, I would try to keep it serious all day. But I have found, later on, that the lighter I am about things when I'm going to do a big scene that's dramatic and takes a lot out of you, the better off I am when I come to it.
I was playing a part of someone dealing dope on a street corner - and there was a guy actually dealing heroin right there. I looked at him, he looked at me, and I got real confused.
I don't like what's going on in Iraq, naturally. I'm part of a large majority of people who don't, but I do not know the whole story. I do not believe what I see on television. I believe a percentage of it, so it's hard for me to discern. I don't like what it's doing to the world.
The play is the source, it is orchestrated with words. In a movie, you are not dealing with as much as that. There are machines and wires. When you're acting for a camera, it keeps taking and never giving back.
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 Quotes
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Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
