Al Pacino Quotes

“I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.”

— Al Pacino

Vanity is my favourite sin.

— Al Pacino

“Women! What can you say? Who made 'em? God must have been a fuckin' genius. The hair ... They say the hair is everything, you know. Have you ever buried your nose in a mountain of curls ... just wanted to go to sleep forever? Or lips ... and when they touched, yours were like ... that first swallow of wine ... after you just crossed the desert.”

— Al Pacino

“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.”

— Al Pacino

Shakespeare's plays are more violent than 'Scarface.'

— Al Pacino

“My first language was shy. It's only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness.”

— Al Pacino

“It's easy to fool the eye but it's hard to fool the heart.”

— Al Pacino

“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.”

— Al Pacino

“There has been a lot of self-doubt and unwelcome events in my life.”

— Al Pacino

“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.”

— Al Pacino

Money makes your life easier. If you're lucky to have it, you're lucky.

— Al Pacino

“When I was younger, I would go to auditions to have the opportunity to audition, which would mean another chance to get up there and try out my stuff, or try out what I learned and see how it worked with an audience, because where are you gonna get an audience?”

— Al Pacino

“I've never liked the recognition, the questions, the publicity. I have often felt like running away and hiding.”

— Al Pacino

“I was not prepared for fame. It hit me hard, and I did not have the capacity to cope.”

— Al Pacino

“That's where humour lives for me. In the body. The Steve Martin kind of stuff or Jim Carrey, that's what I like. I've always felt that's what I would like to do.”

— Al Pacino

“I've always been in the theater. I've always gone to it. That's been my way to cope. Early on in my career, I remember running - fleeing - to the theater as a way of coping with all the meshugaas that was going on for me.”

— Al Pacino

“I've never cared for guns. In fact, when I did 'Scent of a Woman' I had to learn how to assemble one.”

— Al Pacino

Playing a character is an illusion, and I feel that when you know too much about a person, possibly part of that illusion is disrupted.

— Al Pacino

“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

“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?”

— Al Pacino

“On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is
can you win or lose like a man?”

— Al Pacino

“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.”

— Al Pacino

“It wasn't until I got older that I realized acting was something I could really do.”

— Al Pacino

“Without coffee something's missing”

— Al Pacino

“I hope the perception is that I'm an actor, I never intended to be a movie star.”

— Al Pacino

“All I am is what I'm going after.”

— Al Pacino

“The difference between the actor and the painter is that the actor would buy somebody a knish in order to have them watch him act.”

— Al Pacino

“Whether he's doing great acting or not, you're seeing somebody who is in the tradition of a great actor. What he does with it, that's something else, but he's got it all. The talent, the instrument is there, that's why he has endured.”

— Al Pacino

“The fruit falls off the tree. You don't shake it off before it's ready to fall.”

— Al Pacino

“I used to say I wanted to genuflect to a woman, put her up on a pedestal higher and higher, way up beyond my grasp ... Then I'd find another one.”

— Al Pacino

“Romantic love can be a lot of crap, though, let me tell you. And it can hurt you.”

— Al Pacino

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."

— Al Pacino

“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.”

— Al Pacino

“I'm always on a red carpet ... the other day I thought, this ain't bad. You can meet people on it.”

— Al Pacino

“I come from the South Bronx - a true descendant of the melting pot. I grew up in a really mixed neighborhood; it was a very integrated life.”

— Al Pacino

When you perform with a live audience, the audience comes back to you, so that you and the audience are giving to each other, in a sense. It's an extraordinary thing. It's wild turf up there.

— Al Pacino

“I would say I am more concerned with the plays I'm going to do than the movies. I'm more comfortable in a play. In film, there's always a certain sense of control, of holding back. The stage is different ; there's more to act. There are more demands put on you, more experiences to go through.”

— Al Pacino

“Acting is hard work. At times, it's very energizing and enervating. It's childish. It's also responsible. It's illuminating, enriching, joyful, drab. It's bizarre, diabolical. It's exciting.”

— Al Pacino

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.

— Al Pacino

An actor basically likes to be asked to do something, no matter what position he's in. It feels more natural. Sitting and waiting is more gratifying.

— Al Pacino

“The thing that can get you a little upset is when people say other people are better than you. That can bug you.”

— Al Pacino

“I went to Performing Arts because that was the only school that would accept me. My scholastic level was not very high.”

— Al Pacino

“I am more alive in the theater than anywhere else, but what I take into the theater I get from the streets.”

— Al Pacino

“Man is a little bit better than his reputation, and a little bit worse”

— Al Pacino

“I want to be a great actor someday, and I've decided there's no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft.”

— Al Pacino

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.

— Al Pacino

“Certainly the movies were always in the air for me. I come from the era when actors thought it was a big deal to be in the movies.”

— Al Pacino

“You don't get to know anybody in a movie until after it's over. You work less together in a film than you do onstage.”

— Al Pacino

“One of the things that made me want to be an actor more than ever was seeing a Chekhov play, "The Sea Gull," when was 14 in the Bronx.”

— Al Pacino

“Show me a bad script and I will show you a big payday.”

— Al Pacino