Stage Quotes

“All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.”
― Seán O'Casey

“When we are born, we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.”
― William Shakespeare, King Lear

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“All the world's a stage.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“My friends joke that I’m dead until I get onstage. I’m dead right now as you’re speaking to me.”
― Lady Gaga

“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”
― P.S. Baber, Cassie Draws the Universe

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“Happiness was useless to me. It was heartache that filled my purse. What happy man has need of Shakespeare?”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“Kelley. Your name is Kelley, isn't it?" He didn't wait for her confirmation. "Yes. Well. Tell me...that bit just now...was that from Dante's Inferno?"
Uh...no," Kelley stammered. Her face felt hot.
Really?"
I'm in for it.
Are you sure?" he continued. "Because it most certainly wasn't from this play. And it bloody well sounded like hell.”
― Lesley Livingston, Wondrous Strange

“The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

“I am not interested in living in a city where there isn't a production by Samuel Beckett running.”
― Edward Albee

“That's the beautiful thing about innocence; even monsters have a pocketful of childhood memories with which to seek comfort with.”
― Dave Matthes, Sleepeth Not, the Bastard

“One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.”
― Stephen Sondheim

“If you have a rifle, hanging on the wall in the first act, it should fire in the last act”.”
― Stanislavski, Constantin S.

“Totus mundus agit histrionem. (All the World's a Stage.)"

[Motto of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (f. 1599) and its acting company, The King's Men; taken from the first play to be performed on the new stage.]”
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“On those nights, the words were for me alone. They came up unbidden from my heart. They spilled over my tongue and spilled out my mouth. And because of them, I, who was nothing and nobody, was a prince of Denmark, a maid of Verona, a queen of Egypt. I was a sour misanthrope, a beetling hypocrite, a conjurer's daughter, a mad and murderous king.”
― Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution

“My mother said I should have a 'change of scenery.' The word scenery made be think of a play. And as we were driving around, it made sense that way. Because no matter how much the scenery changed, we were still on the same stage.”
― David Levithan, Every You, Every Me

“Honest to God, this is the absolute best kind of moment. The auditorium lights are off except for ones over the stage, and we're all bright eyed and giggle-drunk. I fall a little bit in love with everyone.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“They were all dressed in their finest as though life really were some magical stage play in which every moment ought to be illuminated with its own bright spotlight.”
― Anna Godbersen, Envy

“With God, brokenness is nothing more than the stage upon which the impossible is about to happen.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“It was a wonderful life. To have a stage play right in this room, with real people acting real parts.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“I spend a tremendous amount of time carefully choosing the roles I wish to play so that I can run from the role I was born to play. And if I keep on doing that, I will eventually set foot in my grave never having set foot on the stage.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“The play takes place on a ramp, hanging from a ramp, below a ramp, and to the sides of a ramp.”
― Rosalyn Drexler, The Line of Least Existence and Other Plays

“if somebody doesn't have any talent, get off the stage! you're wasting my time.”
― Elaine Stritch

“Three noble heads cut off in sacrifice for her. But nothing - nothing - can deter the jostling swarms of madmen, pushing forth to jump into the abyss - to waste their lives - for her. And every day the scaffolds heave to hang the new - and newer - martyrs for her cause. Black day that England ever welcomed her.”
― Robert Icke, Mary Stuart

“Remember - your “pulpit” is the immediate territory of influence around you! (It’s not about the stage - it’s about the people around you!)”
― Andrey Shapoval, Predestined: Born for Greatness

“LEWIS. There's nothing in this world can make me joy.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;
And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweet world's taste,
That it yields nought but shame and bitterness.”
― William Shakespeare, King John

“The four stages of mental illness: 1. Awareness. 2. Denial 3. Acceptance. 4. Adaptation.”
― Steven Magee

“I grabbed the mic and walked towards the stage. They said, “Knock them dead, Steve!”
I replied, “They’re already dead...I’m about to knock them ALIVE!”
― Steve Maraboli

“Dance like the whole world is your stage and every day is your debut.”
― Emilyann Allen (pseudonyms Emilyann Phoenix and Emilyann Girdner)