Daily Inspiration Quote by Janet Suzman

Suzman turns the celebrity handshake into something stranger and more intimate: a transfer of residue. The phrase "shaking their flesh and blood hand" is almost deliberately ungainly, as if she wants you to feel the physicality of contact, the warm, slightly awkward fact of another person. Then she swivels to its uncanny twin, "shaking the mystical hand of the character", and suddenly acting isn’t pretending so much as consorting. Characters become entities you can meet, not just perform.

The intent here isn’t to romanticize acting; it’s to demystify influence while keeping its mystery intact. "Rub off on you" is casual, even faintly comic, like she’s talking about paint or perfume. That down-to-earth idiom undercuts the lofty language of "mystical" and makes the point sharper: whether you’re encountering a fan, a director, an icon, or Lady Macbeth, you don’t walk away clean. The self is porous.

Coming from Suzman, whose career bridges classical theatre and modern screen work, the context matters. Stage acting especially demands repeated, sustained inhabitation: the nightly ritual of stepping into someone else’s nervous system while still having to stay technically in control. Her line captures the occupational hazard and the occupational thrill. The subtext is a quiet warning against the fantasy of professional detachment: every role is a relationship, every audience interaction a small exchange of power. You can manage the craft, but you can’t fully audit what it leaves in you.