Welcome to our collection of quotes by James Dean. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for James Dean
James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956).
After his death in a car crash, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of Golden Age Hollywood in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.
Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today.
An actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.
Immortality is the only true success.
An hour or two of learning from the masters is usually enough to recharge my artistic batteries.
Love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile.
An actual right is something that governments need merely to secure, not to implement.
I'm a serious-minded and intense little devil -- terribly gauche and so tense that I don't see how people can stay in the same room as me. I know I couldn't tolerate myself.
I'm not going to go through life with one arm tied behind my back.
My fun days are over.
Live fast, die young, leave a good looking corpse.
You are who you are meant to be. Dance as if no one's watching. Love as if it's all you know. Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
Reality doesn't have any preconceived ideas. You've got to learn how to smoke the cigarette, not act smoking the cigarette. You need to drink the drink, not act drinking the drink. You've got to do things and not show them.
What do we need all that for?If a picture is psychologically motivated, if there is truth in the relationship in it, then I think that picture will do good. I firmly believe Rebel Without A Cause is such a picture.
If I had one day when I didn't have to be all confused and didn't have to feel that I was ashamed of everything. If I felt that I belonged someplace. You know?
I have a fairly adequate knowledge of Satanic forces.
At times there seems to be a million ideas worth painting. However, there are days when it's a challenge to pull any idea together. On these days I go to my studio, leaf through an art history book, and tell myself that I am part of this great tradition.
The cinema is a very truthful medium because the camera doesn't let you get away with anything. On stage, you can even loaf a little, if you're so inclined.
You can do 'Hamlet' while performing cartwheels... as long as the audience sees your eyes -- you can make the performance real.
Take it easy driving -- the life you save may be mine.
Treasure is no fun if you can't share it with your friends.
Remember: Life is short, break the rules.
Longer Version:
Remember: Life is short, break the rules (they were made to be broken) Forgive quickly, kiss slowly Love truly, laugh uncontrollably And never regret anything that makes you smile. The clouds are lined with silver and the glass is half full (though the answers won't be found at the bottom) Don't sweat the small stuff, You are who you are meant to be, Dance as if no one's watching, Love as if it's all you know, Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you'll die today.
Studying cows, pigs and chickens can help an actor develop his character. There are a lot of things I learned from animals. One was that they couldn't hiss or boo me.
Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.
To my way of thinking, an actor's course is set even before he's out of the cradle.
I don't want anything seventy-thirty. Fifty-fifty's always good enough for me. I don't want to have to give anybody seventy; I don't want anybody to give me seventy. I want fifty.
An actor should be judged by his performance only.
But you can't show some far off idyllic conception of behavior if you want the kids to come and see the picture. You've got to show what it's really like, and try to reach them on their own grounds.
To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication.
Longer Version:
To grasp the full significance of life is the actor's duty; to interpret it his problem; and to express it his dedication. Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have. Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done.
The only way to make a scene realistic is to do it the way you know it would really happen.
The only greatness for man is immortality.
The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.
I also became close to nature, and am now able to appreciate the beauty with which this world is endowed.
Racing is the only time I feel whole.
When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that.
Longer Version:
When an actor plays a scene exactly the way a director orders, it isn't acting. It's following instructions. Anyone with the physical qualifications can do that. So the director's task is just that -- to direct, to point the way. Then the actor takes over. And he must be allowed the space, the freedom to express himself in the role. Without that space, an actor is no more than an unthinking robot with a chest-full of push-buttons.
Trust and belief are two prime considerations. You must not allow yourself to be opinionated.
To me, acting is the most logical way for people's neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.
If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man.
My purpose in life does not include a hankering to charm society.
Death can't be considered because, if you're afraid to die, there's no room in your life to make discoveries.
Only the gentle are ever really strong.
I think the one thing this picture shows that's new is the psychological disproportion of the kids' demands on the parents. Parents are often at fault, but the kids have some work to do, too.
You try to be yourself, do only what you've always done and like to do, and right away, you're tagged as an oddball.
There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are all impaled on the crook of conditioning.
Longer Version:
There is no way to be truly great in this world. We are impaled on the crook of conditioning. A fish that is in the water has no choice that he is. Genius would have it that we swim in sand. We are fish and we drown.
An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet.
Longer Version:
An actor must interpret life, and in order to do so must be willing to accept all the experiences life has to offer. In fact, he must seek out more of life than life puts at his feet. In the short span of his lifetime, an actor must learn all there is to know, experience all there is to experience, or approach that state as closely as possible. He must be superhuman in his efforts to store away in the core of his subconscious everything that he might be called upon to use in the expression of his art.
Being a good actor isn't easy. Being a man is even harder. I want to be both before I'm done.
I want to be a Texan 24 hours a day.