You need some insecurity if you're an actor. It keeps the pot boiling. I haven't yet started to think about retiring. I was shocked when I heard about Paul Newman retiring at age 82. Most actors just fade away like old soldiers.
Interpretation
Insecurity can drive creativity in acting and keep an actor engaged in their craft.
Al Pacino's quote reflects on the role of insecurity in the life of an actor, suggesting that it fuels their passion and creativity. He contrasts this with the idea of retirement, expressing his disbelief and discontent at the thought of fading away from the profession, akin to 'old soldiers' who no longer actively engage in their duties.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing a career in the arts, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of embracing insecurity.
I don’t understand the hatred and fear of gays and bisexuals and lesbians… it’s a concept I honestly cannot grasp. To me, it’s not who you love… a man, a woman, what have you… it’s the fact that you love. That is all that truly matters.
We start to realize that there are anodynes in life that help us through the day. I don't care if it's a walk in the park, a look out the window, a good bubble bath - whatever. Even a meal you like, or a friend you want to call. That helps us solve all this stuff in our head.
I'm an actor, not a star. Stars are people who live in Hollywood and have heart-shaped swimming pools.
On any given Sunday you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is -- can you win or lose like a man?
There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
You find that you have to do many things, more than just lift up the camera and shoot, and so you get involved in it in a very physical way. You may find that the picture you want to do can only be made from a certain place, and you're not there, so you have to physically go there. And that participation may spur you on to work harder on the thing, . . . because in the physical change of position you start seeing a whole different relationship.
Poetry is a sort of homecoming.
It seems to me that it had no other rationale than to show that we are not simply the country of entertainers, but also that of engineers and builders called from across the world to build bridges, viaducts, stations and major monuments of modern industry, the Eiffel Tower deserves to be treated with consideration.
A product can live on one great idea. An interior needs 1,000 great ideas to really live, which makes interior design a whole orchestration of this art of juxtaposition, placement, and combination.
I am an artist at living - my work of art is my life.
I still think it's really quite wonderful when I read a sentence of mine and it has that quality of lastingness.
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