“Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don't want you to be stuck with your own life. It's too little.”

— Stella Adler

Obituary in New York Times

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Use your creative imagination to create a past that belongs to your character. I don't want you to be stuck with your o…" by Stella Adler?

Stella Adler 15

American actress and teaching coach 1901–1992

Related quotes

“I want you to invent it. I want you to have that skill. To create your own reality. Your own set of laws. I want to try and teach you that.”

Chuck Palahniuk (1962) American novelist, essayist

“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend, or not.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

“If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.”

C. J. Cherryh (1942) United States science fiction and fantasy author

The Camelot Project interview (1996)
Context: When the legend is retold, it mirrors the reality of the time, and one can learn from studying how various authors have attempted to retell the story. I don't think we have an obligation to change it radically. I think that if we ever move too far from the basic story, we would lose something very precious. I don't, for instance, approve of fantasy that attempts to go back and rewrite the Middle Ages until it conforms to political correctness in the twentieth century. That removes all the benefit from reading the story. If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.