Top Years of Paul Newman ( Poster Story )

In loving memory of Paul Newman (January 26, 1925 - September 26, 2008)

On Acting
“I’m basically an irresponsible person, and I wanted to find a way of life that allowed me to continue in my irresponsibility.If you’re lucky enough to do that, there’s a kind of genius in it. If you fail, of course, it’s disastrous.I’ve been lucky, but now it looks like some kind of grand design.”

“I was terrorised by the emotional requirements of being an actor. Acting is like letting your pants down; you’re exposed”

“I was lucky to survive my first film, The Silver Chalice. God, what a dog, the worst film of the ’50s.”

“I cannot bear to look at a film that I made before 1990. Maybe 1985. There’s no sense even trying to explain it. I really just can’t watch myself. I see all the machinery at work and it just drives me nuts, so I don’t look at anything.”

“I wasn’t driven to acting by any inner compulsion. I was running away from the sporting goods business.”

“Acting is a question of absorbing other people’s personalities and adding some of your own experiences.”

“I was always a character actor. I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood.”

“To be an actor, you have to be a child.”

“To that extent that you can sustain and maintain that childlike part of your personality is probably the best part of acting.”

“Every time I get a script it’s a matter of trying to know what I could do with it. I see colors, imagery. It has to have a smell. It’s like falling in love. You can’t give a reason why.”