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.
Each time I make a movie, it's a little bit like taking another course in something because there's an argument between these people that I don't necessarily have an answer to.
Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.
Hollywood wants to go for the flash, because that's what a lot of them think science fiction is.
I don't paint nature. I am nature.
I seated ugliness on my knee, and almost immediately grew tired of it.
All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one.
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