American actor (1924-2004)
Acting is the least mysterious of all crafts. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we want to hide something or pretend, we're acting. Most people do it all day long.
MARLON BRANDO
New York Times, July 2, 2004
An actor's a guy, who if you ain't talking about him, ain't listening.
MARLON BRANDO
The Observer
A lot of the old movie stars couldn't act their way out of a box of wet tissue paper, but they were successful because they had distinctive personalities. They were predictable brands of breakfast cereal: on Wednesdays we had Quaker Oats and Gary Cooper; on Fridays we had Wheaties and Clark Gable. They were off-the-shelf products you expected always to be the same, actors and actresses with likable personalities who played themselves more or less the same role the same way every time out.
MARLON BRANDO
Songs My Mother Taught Me
Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse. It's a bum's life. Quitting acting, that's the sign of maturity.
MARLON BRANDO
attributed, Halliwell's Filmgoer's and Video Viewer's Companion
I think awards in this country at this time are inappropriate to be received or given until the condition of the American Indian is drastically altered. If we are not our brother's keeper, at least let us not be his executioner.
MARLON BRANDO
New York Times, March 30, 1973
The principal benefit acting has afforded me is the money to pay for my psychoanalysis.
MARLON BRANDO
attributed, Marlon Brando: The Only Contender
In a close-up, the audience is only inches away, and your face becomes the stage.
MARLON BRANDO
New York Times, July 2, 2004
Most of the successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings.
MARLON BRANDO
attributed, Pete Martin calls on ...
Even today I meet people who think of me automatically as a tough, insensitive, coarse guy named Stanley Kowalski.
MARLON BRANDO
Songs My Mother Taught Me
Privacy is not something that I'm merely entitled to, it's an absolute prerequisite.
MARLON BRANDO
attributed, Marlon Brando
There's a line in the picture where he snarls, "Nobody tells me what to do." That's exactly how I've felt all my life.
MARLON BRANDO
attributed, Marlon Brando: Portraits and Film Stills
The power and influence of a movie star is curious: I didn't ask for it or take it; people gave it to me. Simply because you're a movie star, people empower you with special rights and privileges.
MARLON BRANDO
Songs My Mother Taught Me
I have always considered my life a private affair and the business of no one beyond my family and those I love. Except for moral and political issues that aroused in me a desire to speak out, I have done my utmost throughout my life, for the sake of my children and myself, to remain silent ... But now, in my seventieth year, I have decided to tell the story of my life as best I can, so that my children can separate the truth from the myths that others have created about me, as myths are created about everyone swept up in the turbulent and distorting maelstrom of celebrity in our culture.
MARLON BRANDO
Songs My Mother Taught Me
I suppose the story of my life is a search for love, but more than that, I have been looking for a way to repair myself from the damages I suffered early on and to define my obligation, if I had any, to myself and my species.
MARLON BRANDO
New York Times, July 2, 2004
If a studio offered to pay me as much to sweep the floor as it did to act, I'd sweep the floor.
MARLON BRANDO
New York Times, July 2, 2004