"Chaplin made me laugh and cry without saying a word. I had an instinct. I was touched by the soul of Chaplin — Mime is not an imitator but a creator."
Marcel Marceau was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide for more than 60 years.
"No art is superior to another one, but every art looks for expertise and perfection. This is life, which continues; this is why there is no death. There is continuation. There is no silence. There is a continuation of thought."
"Perhaps true appreciation of Marceau requires a step back in time. Before Marceau broke out of an invisible box and stepped into millions of Americans living rooms on Max Liebmans "Show of Shows" nearly 40 years ago, you could fit the number of people who knew or much less cared anything about the art of pantomime in a Citroen. What we know of mime — the mute theatrics, the exaggerated body language, the requisite black-and-white get-up — was essentially minted by Marceau. … When Marceau is gone, we wont say, "There goes one of the worlds greatest mimes," but "There goes the worlds great mime."
"Mime makes the invisible, visible and the visible, invisible."
"Music and silence... combine strongly because music is done with silence, and silence is full of music."
"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?"
"Hes garnered honorary degrees from prestigious universities across America. Hes had three wives, four children, survived the Holocaust, joined the Resistance and marched in Pattons army. All this, and he has a wickedly weird and original sense of humor. "Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards," Marceau once said, "for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup." Even when you dont quite get it, Marceau makes you think twice."