What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.
The truth, the absolute truth, is that the chief beauty for the theatre consists in fine bodily proportions.
For the theatre one needs long arms... an artiste with short arms can never make a fine gesture.
Although all new ideas are born in France, they are not readily adopted there. It seems that they must first commence to prosper in a foreign country.
What matters poverty? What matters anything to him who is enamoured of our art? Does he not carry in himself every joy and every beauty?
Permanent success cannot be achieved except by incessant intellectual labour, always inspired by the ideal.
The theatre is the involuntary reflex of the ideas of the crowd.
The actor is too prone to exaggerate his powers; he wants to play Hamlet when his appearance is more suitable to King Lear.
To be a good actor... it is necessary to have a firmly tempered soul, to be surprised at nothing, to resume each minute the laborious task that has barely just been finished.
Oscar Wilde: 'Do you mind if I smoke?' Sarah Bernhardt: 'I don't care if you burn.'
I have, thanks to my travels, added to my stock all the superstitions of other countries. I know them all now, and in any critical moment of my life, they all rise up in armed legions for or against me.
Legend remains victorious in spite of history.
