Welcome to our collection of Drama Quotes, where the words of playwrights, actors, and other influential figures resonate through the ages. Drama has been a fundamental part of human expression since ancient times, serving as a powerful medium for exploring the depths of human emotion, relationships, and societal issues. From the gripping tragedies of Shakespeare to the thought-provoking works of contemporary playwrights, drama has the unique ability to captivate audiences and provoke introspection.
In this curated selection of quotes, you’ll find insights, wit, and wisdom from some of the greatest minds in the world of drama. Whether you’re seeking inspiration for a performance, contemplating the complexities of life, or simply appreciating the artistry of language, these quotes offer a glimpse into the profound impact of dramatic storytelling. So, dive into the world of drama, where every line is imbued with meaning, and every character represents a facet of the human experience. Explore, ponder, and discover the magic of drama through the timeless words of those who have shaped it.
I think ‘The Walking Dead’ is very interestingly paced. It’s slow, almost like an old Western. It’s also very stylised – visually, I think it’s very pretty. It’s more of a psychological drama than anything else. Tania Raymonde
Every third person in the world is a drama queen. And crying ‘victim,’ especially when you’re not really a victim in any real way, feels good. It feels good to cry victim if you’re not one. John McWhorter
Being a drag superstar, traveling the world and touring, it really is not as glamorous as you’d think it is. There’s lots of airport drama and bags and buses and hotels. Dating and having a social life are impossible. Violet Chachki
I don’t feel like I need to air out dirty laundry or any drama. But Robin Williams was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met, celebrity or not. The most humble, nicest guy. I will also say he had a lot of issues. Trisha Paytas
We did a lot of that in drama school: intellectualising and maybe justifying your position. ‘I am a thinking actor and I have thought this through’ – well, just do it. I much prefer the doing aspect. Michael Fassbender
Drama is action, sir, action and not confounded philosophy. Luigi Pirandello
There’s real drama in performing live. You never know how it’s going to be. Kevin Costner
Nothing would make me happier than doing nothing but drama for the foreseeable future. Jason Bateman
Don’t waste time on what’s not important. Don’t get sucked into the drama. Get on with it: don’t dwell on the past. Be a big person; be generous of spirit; be the person you’d admire. Allegra Huston
Doing drama is, in a sense, easier. In doing comedy, if you don’t get that laugh, there’s something wrong. Betty White
To be perfectly honest, drama is a lot simpler than comedy. Nikki Cox
I think the point to be understood is that we’re all different. I’ve never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn’t go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, ‘This is the way you should act.’ Ian Mckellen
Everyone knows what it’s like to make the wrong decision for the right reasons. For me, wrong decisions are the heart of drama – a character who’s always making the right decisions is boring. Mark Waid
‘Expect nothing and hope for the best’ is my mantra. A drama teacher called Joseph Blatchley told me that, and it’s the best advice I’ve had. If you keep an open mind and don’t expect too much, then you won’t be disappointed. Michelle Dockery
Drama is what I did before ‘Blossom.’ Mayim Bialik
I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries. Frank Capra
I wasn’t good at examinations, but I went to a very good secondary school – Bolton-on-Dearne – with wonderful teachers, who taught me drama and encouraged me in every way. Brian Blessed
The show business has all phases and grades of dignity, from the exhibition of a monkey to the exposition of that highest art in music or the drama which secures for the gifted artists a world-wide fame princes well might envy. P. T. Barnum
My dad said, ‘Go to college and take whatever you want.’ So, I went to the University of Miami. When I got up to the line at registration, I saw that you had to take math and history. I said, ‘There’s no way I’m taking math and history.’ And right next to it was the line for the drama department. Ray Liotta
Drama school is fundamentally practical. I didn’t write any essays, so I came out with a BA honors degree in acting. Emilia Clarke
I have a vision of artists putting into film, drama, literature, music, and paintings great themes and great characters from the Book of Mormon. Ezra Taft Benson
The basis of drama is… the struggle of the hero towards a specific goal at the end of which he realises that what kept him from it was, in the lesser drama, civilisation and, in the great drama, the discovery of something that he did not set out to discover but which can be seen retrospectively as inevitable. David Mamet
I went to an ordinary primary school, and then I started performing in a show called ‘Billy Elliot’ on the West End, and that was sort of my drama school. Tom Holland
The Jewish festival of freedom is the oldest continuously observed religious ritual in the world. Across the centuries, Passover has never lost its power to inspire the imagination of successive generations of Jews with its annually re-enacted drama of slavery and liberation. Jonathan Sacks
I think I’ve played a lesbian about five times. The first one was with Helen Baxendale in a drama called ‘The Investigator,’ about the conditions lesbians had to live under in the army in Britain, which was based on a true story. Laura Fraser
My old drama coach used to say, ‘Don’t just do something, stand there.’ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing. Clint Eastwood
My natural accent is American. I chose to speak with a U.K. accent when I was about to enter the final year at drama school in London. I was going to try to find a way to stay in the U.K. after I finished college and could not imagine trying to live and get work there with an American accent. Jennifer Ehle
My childhood has never lost its mystery, and it has never lost its drama. Louise Bourgeois
What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning. Barbara De Angelis
Drama is easy. Comedy’s hard. Peter Bogdanovich
Overall, the anarchy was the most creative of all periods of Japanese culture for in it there appeared the greatest landscape painting, the culmination of the skill of landscape gardening and the arts of flower arrangement, and the No drama. J. M. Roberts
I never went to drama school. It’s a brilliant thing for the right type of person, but I threw myself in the deep end. Callum Turner
There is hardly a pioneer’s hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin. Alexis de Tocqueville
I guess you can tease me about being a drama queen, because that did heighten the drama. Greg Louganis
Our great national drama was a westward expansion that conquered a native population rather than coexisting with it. Ross Douthat
When I become a character in a movie or drama… I can think about the character only and not the complicated matters of my own life. Gong Yoo
The narration, in fact, doubles the drama with a commentary without which no mise en scene would be possible. Jacques Lacan
Religion enabled society to organise itself to debate goodness, just as Greek drama had once done. Edward Bond
‘Game of Thrones,’ people say that it’s a fantasy series, but it’s a hell of a lot more than that. It attracts the so-called geeks and nerds, and God bless them, they’re wonderful for getting right into the show. But primarily it’s about family; it’s power and betrayal and jealousy. It’s all those wonderful things that a fantastic drama is about. Liam Cunningham
When I was trying to find work after drama school in London, it felt like the same actors always got the plum roles, especially in television. We have a smaller market place, vastly fewer drama-producing networks, and they seem to compete for the same established names for those projects. Jamie Bamber
I wanted to go to drama school, but when I got the part in ‘Falling,’ I got an agent, so it seemed a good idea to work. I always did a lot of singing and dancing, so I am glad it worked out that way. I would like to study stage acting at some point, though. Florence Pugh
Every child should have time for arts, music, sports, drama, robotics, school newspapers and the like, not to mention recess and play. Chris Gabrieli
Real life is messy, and drama is a shaped version of real life. Simon Beaufoy
If you want to laugh, see a comedy. If you want to cry, see a drama, and if you want suspense, see a thriller. Charlie Murphy
Drama holds you back. Mikaela Shiffrin
The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ; it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both. Victor Hugo
Opera is the ultimate art form. It has singing and music and drama and dance and emotion and story. Diane Paulus
Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper. Everything can have drama if it’s done right. Even a pancake. Julia Child
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. Alfred Hitchcock
I think, in storytelling, people want to see triumph, and so it’s usually nice to start with failure and see someone somehow rise above it. People like to see people try. And they like to see people fail for comedy, and they like to see people succeed for the drama and emotion. Nick Kroll
I need drama in my life to keep making music. Eminem
‘Blueprint 3’ is made up of songs, but it’s also a commentary on the idea that in order for rap to survive, we have to stretch out the drama. We have to stretch out the audience. It can’t be this narrow – we have to stretch out the point of view. Jay-Z
I’ve always been attracted to classic patterns in architecture, music and drama. Robert Wilson
With every film, I try and give the audiences a little more than the previous film in terms of comedy, action, drama and so on. Salman Khan
I went to university in Leeds, and I graduated in 2016 and moved to London with the intention of applying to drama school. I was living at my friend’s house; then, I was working as a live-in nanny for a couple of months because I had nowhere else to live. Emma Mackey
You can’t get away from violence in drama. If you do not have conflict, you do not have drama. Cornel Wilde
I like drama. I love being in a drama where I get to be the funny guy. That’s what I really love the most. John Leguizamo
This life is not man’s own show; if he becomes personally and emotionally involved in the very complicated cosmic drama, he reaps inevitable suffering for having distorted the divine ‘plot.’ Paramahansa Yogananda
My worst holiday was in Athens when I was a young drama student at Rada in 1965. I ran out of money. I had my things stolen and I wasn’t able to speak a word of the language. Stephanie Beacham
My life is full of drama, and I don’t have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like. Adele
I’m naturally a nice person. I’m not trying to have any problems with people. I’m done with the drama and trouble. I want a stress-free life. Action Bronson
Whether that’s an action film or a comedy or a drama or anything in between, I’m willing to prove that I can play with the big boys. Sasha Grey
Identity is part of drama to me. Who am I, why am I behaving this way, and am I aware of it? Matthew Weiner
I wanted to do ‘Manzanar’ because I’d never done anything like it before. The spoken word there is between a drama and an essay, and I’d never worked in concert with an orchestra. John Cho
Back home, almost everything I did, I did in Hebrew. I went to drama school in Hebrew, my whole career was in Hebrew, and to switch languages was something that was fascinating and more complicated than I expected it to be, even though I’ve been speaking English since I could speak. Yael Grobglas
But a true diva has dismissed that drama. A true diva’s heart is open, and she’s ready to play by her own rules – rules that are gentle and kind. Jenifer Lewis
I don’t feel pressure in a negative way. I like pressure. I feel excitement and calm at the same time. No pressure, no diamonds. I want pressure: pressure creates drama, creates emotion. Conor McGregor
Just by nature, I think in comedy. I think in sketches and what have you. In every drama or action movie I’ve been in, I have to make a concerted effort not to turn it into a comedy. Every shot, before action is called and after cut is called, I’m usually in some goofy head space. It feels natural to me. Michael Jai White
When the rose and the cross are united the alchemical marriage is complete and the drama ends. Then we wake from history and enter eternity. Robert Anton Wilson
The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man – and the dogma is the drama. Dorothy L. Sayers
I think I was always a drama queen. I really, really, really loved playing pretend. Kathryn Hahn
I love walking down the street and seeing faces and drama and happiness and sadness and dirt and cleanliness. Ric Ocasek
Ancient societies had anthropomorphic gods: a huge pantheon expanding into centuries of dynastic drama; fathers and sons, martyred heroes, star-crossed lovers, the deaths of kings – stories that taught us of the danger of hubris and the primacy of humility. Tom Hiddleston
I studied law, I got an alright degree, and then I was going to go and do something called an LPC, which is a Legal Practice Course, which qualifies you as a lawyer. But I didn’t end up doing it, because I went to drama school instead. Adeel Akhtar
In city hall and in local government, you have to get things done without drama. Jim Gray
The drama of life begins with a wail and ends with a sigh. Minna Antrim
Conflict is drama, and how people deal with conflict shows you the kind of people they are. Stephen Moyer
I was just lucky enough to grow up in a time when they actually had drama departments in schools. Sally Field
As God has not made anything useless in this world, as all beings fulfill obligations or a role in the sublime drama of Creation, I cannot exempt from this duty, and small though it be, I too have a mission to fill, as for example: alleviating the sufferings of my fellowmen. Jose Rizal
A lot of people give actors credit when they gain weight for a role in a drama when they win an Oscar, but when you’re doing a sitcom, people don’t give you a lot of credit, because you’ve got to keep your weight on for five or six years if it’s successful. Mike O’Malley
I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect. Between homework and sports and drama and being social, I slept about four hours a night through high school and college. Allison Williams
I was a drama teacher, so I had the opportunity to show off in front of a captive audience. I essentially did 13 years of stand-up. Whether my pupils would agree that I was remotely interesting or not is another question. Greg Davies
I’ve done a lot of drama, and comedy was the one genre I was not being offered. So I became obsessive about getting one. Rachel Weisz
In approaching our subject it will be best, without attempting to shorten the path by referring to famous theories of the drama, to start directly from the facts, and to collect from them gradually an idea of Shakespearean Tragedy. Andrew Coyle Bradley
The drama teacher that I had in high school, back in Texas, was the only teacher who didn’t kick me out of his class. He turned me on to ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.’ I had picked up Dylan with ‘Bringing It All Back Home,’ and he turned me on to the first couple of albums, which I hadn’t heard. Steve Earle
People love scandal; people love drama. They love stripping away the layers to see what’s really in there, and they’ll do anything – as well as make it up – to get it. Julia Roberts
It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created. Bruce Beresford
I began to feel that the drama of the truth that is in the moment and in the past is richer and more interesting than the drama of Hollywood movies. So I began looking at documentary films. Ken Burns
Action is drama. If we cannot make the audience laugh, smile or cry with us, we are not actors. Sonny Chiba
The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself. Taylor Swift
I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other. We’re all cruel, aren’t we? We are all extreme in one way or another at times and that’s what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with. Martin McDonagh
In a drama of the highest order there is little food for censure or hatred; it teaches rather self-knowledge and self-respect. Percy Bysshe Shelley
War is the supreme drama of a completely mechanized society. Lewis Mumford
Drama starts where logic ends. Ram Charan
World War II is the greatest drama in human history, the biggest war ever and a true battle of good and evil. I imagine writers will continue to get stories from it, and readers will continue to love them, for many more years. Ken Follett
When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language. James Earl Jones
You might see some of the movies that I’m in where there are shades of drama or whatever, but for the most part, I don’t get offered serious roles. Martin Lawrence
I just wanted to be a composer; I became an actor by default, really. I got a scholarship to a college of music and drama, hoping to take a scholarship in music. But I ended up as an acting student, so I’ve stuck with that for the last 50-odd years. Anthony Hopkins
I am a drama queen! Parineeti Chopra
Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have – by disrupting that order – a way of surprising. Vaclav Havel
