I don’t think actors should ever expect to get a role, because the disappointment is too great. You’ve got to think of things as an opportunity. An audition’s an opportunity to have an audience. – Al Pacino
The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I’m talking about. – Al Pacino
I’ve always been in the theater. I’ve always gone to it. That’s been my way to cope. Early on in my career, I remember running – fleeing – to the theater as a way of coping with all the meshugaas that was going on for me. – Al Pacino
When I was younger, I would go to auditions to have the opportunity to audition, which would mean another chance to get up there and try out my stuff, or try out what I learned and see how it worked with an audience, because where are you gonna get an audience? – Al Pacino
I remember acting in a school play about the melting pot when I was very little. There was a great big pot onstage. On the other side of the pot was a little girl who had dark hair, and she and I were representing the Italians. And I thought: Is that what an Italian looked like? – Al Pacino
I used to wear disguises, like hats and false beards, just to walk around and avoid attention. – Al Pacino
My grandmother always came to my shows. She was always concerned about the way I dressed – even later on, when I was well known and I supported her. – Al Pacino
Most everybody who’s Italian is half Italian. Except me. I’m all Italian. I’m mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me. – Al Pacino
The actor becomes an emotional athlete. The process is painful – my personal life suffers. – Al Pacino
It would be hard to play a character you don’t like – for me anyway – or can’t find something in them to like. – Al Pacino
My weaknesses… I wish I could come up with something. I’d probably have the same pause if you asked me what my strengths are. Maybe they’re the same thing. – Al Pacino
The hardest thing about being famous is that people are always nice to you. You’re in a conversation and everybody’s agreeing with what you’re saying – even if you say something totally crazy. You need people who can tell you what you don’t want to hear. – Al Pacino
I’ve never cared for guns. In fact, when I did ‘Scent of a Woman’ I had to learn how to assemble one. – Al Pacino
Some of the roles that are challenging are more in theater and TV. In movies, there’s a tendency to cast actors in roles that have been successful for them. It has to pay for itself. – Al Pacino
That’s where humour lives for me. In the body. The Steve Martin kind of stuff or Jim Carrey, that’s what I like. I’ve always felt that’s what I would like to do. – Al Pacino
Francis Ford Coppola did this early on. You tape a movie, like a radio show, and you have the narrator read all the stage directions. And then you go back like a few days later and then you listen to the movie. And it sort of plays in your mind like a film, like a first rough cut of a movie. – Al Pacino
In America most everybody who’s Italian is half Italian. Except me. I’m all Italian. I’m mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me. – Al Pacino
My first language was shy. It’s only by having been thrust into the limelight that I have learned to cope with my shyness. – Al Pacino