On Chinese Acting / Brecht

To look at himself is for the performer an artful and artistic act of selfestrangement. Any empathy on the spectator’s part is thereby prevented from becoming total, that is, from being a complete self-surrender. An admirable distance from the events portrayed is achieved. This is not to say that the spectator experiences no empathy whatsoever. He feels his way into the actor as into an
observer. In this manner an observing, watching attitude is cultivated.

(Bertold Brecht, On Chinese Acting, p.14 in Brecht Sourcebook)

He confines himself at the outset to merely quoting the character. (p.15)