Almanac: Alec Guinness on acting technique

"When I watch, say, Maggie Smith, I have no awareness of any 'technical' accomplishment, no perception of any wheels which may be going round; what she does just seems to me mesmeric and true. If the 'technique' or mechanics show, then there must be something wrong. In any case I don't want to know; I just want to believe, enjoy and be taken into another world."

Alec Guinness, A Commonplace Book