Stage Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old stage quotes, stage sayings, and stage proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

The essence of the stage is concentration and penetration. Of the screen action, movement, sweep. Elia Kazan
On the stage, you have to find truth, even if you have to lose the audience. Anthony Quinn
The present stage redefines the possibilities of man and nature in accordance with the new means available for their realization. Herbert Marcuse
On stage, you can use your emotions. It's the place where you can channel them. They have a purpose. Florence Welch
The stage is a training ground and it's where you learn what's funny and what's successful. Matthew Lillard
When you're on stage you have a very strange knowledge of what the audience is. It isn't exactly a sound - it's a hum, like the streets. Keith Jarrett
On stage you need to emphasize every emotion. But on screen you need to tone everything down and make it believable. Tom Holland
The stage is like a cage of light. People are no longer afraid of you - they are the ones out there in the dark, watching. Gerard Depardieu
The stage is suspension of disbelief. Film is a literal medium. Joseph Bologna
A stage setting is not a background; it is an environment. Robert Edmond Jones
Stage is about imperfections and working with them, whether it be from you or the audience Katherine Moennig
For the stage displays the first vigorous expression, as the natural thing and without conspicuous restraint, of private individuality. Lascelles Abercrombie
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.  Oscar Wilde
When you are on stage you are having an affair with three thousand people. Gelsey Kirkland
A stage space has two rules: (1) Anything can happen and (2) Something must happen. Peter Brook
There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor. Henry David Thoreau
On the stage one must not confuse the nature of a personality with the naturalness of a person. Karl Kraus