Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
There's something cathartic about swearing 150 times after spending ten hours in the editing room.
My publicist told me not to talk about politics but, yes, I think we have a president who stole the election.
I'm actually a very bad surfer, which is good because everybody likes a bad surfer. Nobody likes a good surfer.
I am very good with dialects, but the two that I can't do for some reason are the South African and Australian.
I think New York will always be this incredible international crossroads, and I don't think that will ever change.
There's nothing more exciting than that conversation you have with a live audience. It's the best feeling in the world.
We have to remember to respect the faith of people and maybe not the organizations or the groups that manifest around it.
The funny thing is that I write and I act a lot about being Jewish, but I don't really think about it as a regular person.
I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that's a lot of what acting is. I was a little bit different.
I am so used to being able to express myself from being an actor. So when people don't understand me, I'm just completely lost.
My grandfather was raising me, and in many respects, I was trying to understand what it meant to be a man. He was my role model.
It's finding time for each other. That's the trick to any relationship, you know. Finding time to really be present for each other.
Pitching. You're pitching yourself constantly which is probably why there are so many plays about sales. I think also it's like life.
That's one of the benefits of working on big budget films. You work with people who have a lot of experience and you get to learn a lot.
As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong. That's what I find with acting. As soon as it becomes padded, it becomes pat.
The skill set for hockey is so specific to skating and if you haven't been skating as a kid it's impossible to play - and I wasn't a skater.
The skill set for hockey is so specific to skating and if you haven’t been skating as a kid it’s impossible to play - and I wasn’t a skater.
Style, no matter how outrageous it is, is still an expression of someone's personality. And my personality is somewhere stuck in the classics.
When you're in a place like New York or D.C. you just can't beat it, and it's so hard to recreate because they are both such distinctive places.
That's really how I got started was doing Shakespeare. When I got out of school, I was lucky enough to meet George Wolfe, who ran The Public Theater.
The worst bar fights I ever saw were in London. I saw a guy break a pint glass in another guy's face in a club in the Eighties. It was a gay club, too.
And I think for me theres a lot of neurosis involved with where you should be or thinking about where you are all the time instead of being where you are.
And I think for me there's a lot of neurosis involved with where you should be or thinking about where you are all the time instead of being where you are.
I live with an 18-month-old Jack Russell named Chicken. He moved in about 15 months ago, and it was very hard at first because I work a lot and he doesn't.
You hear different things from different people, and they're all valid: they're all valuable. I think that's what comprises a performance is all those ideas.
I've always been more interested in the audience than I have in the plays. I like that idea of all those people sitting in the dark together. It's kind of fun.
Don't hit people; don't let it get you too angry; remember that everything you do can and will be used against you. And take a breath and have some perspective.
I was a writer. I just wasn't a very good one. I was lucky enough to have a playwriting teacher who told me that I'd be a better actor than I would a playwright.
I think people respond to truthful, simple narrative, and the more you try to dress it up to try and do something else, the harder it is for people to relate to.
You watch a hockey game, and the hand-eye coordination and the speed is really miraculous; how those guys track the puck alone, just following it with their eyes.
I'm drawn to people who share that sense of loss. All actors are trying to repair damaged relationships. I think that might be why I've been drawn to other actors.
Actors are as good as they allow themselves to be, and to portray life, you have to have as broad an experience of it as you possibly can, so everything's worth it.
I have Slavic fat pads that make me look like a chipmunk and arched predatory eyebrows. With that, you're not going to get funny. That's why I play so many bad guys.
I really do think that if you're doing your job right, you're never gonna be what the other actor was, but you can be influenced by his intelligence and his choices.
I didn't think that a career in theater was very realistic so I thought the only thing I could make money doing and still be somewhat artistic was, god help me, advertising.
My style was always intuitive. I never used to believe in working on your body. Anything that smacked of vanity to me was bad for your acting, but I learned that wasn't true.
I really never thought I was that good at film. And honestly still don't. My strength is language. My background is monologues and a certain kind of Brechtian spin on theater.
I struggle with the idea of comparing people's work and art. The notion of giving awards or putting a competitive spin on something that is a relative art form is sort of odd to me.
And you know, I hate to admit this, but I don't always think in terms of Shakespeare. When I eat, I do. When I'm at a restaurant, I'll think, 'Hmm, what would Macbeth have ordered?'
I love having that creative discussion where, at the end of the day, you both feel better for having done it. Maybe it's a typically Jewish thing, where you sort of go at each other.
I don't think I've ever been a huge target for the press, and I value that to a degree, because there's a certain value for actors staying beneath the radar so they can play characters.
Call me communist, but I think that's something that everyone, regardless of their family's income, has a right to, and I was fortunate enough to have a mother who felt that way as well.
Well, I don't think I've ever been a huge target for the press, and I value that to a degree, because there's a certain value for actors staying beneath the radar so they can play characters.
I want to forget what I've learned about the character, but the reality is that you can't, because you've absorbed it. It's there in that moment when you need it. The hard part is to trust it.
Film is such a bizarre vehicle for acting. It's such a bizarre experience. I don't think you ever really get familiar with it. If you do get familiar with it, you're probably not that good anymore.
I've got nothing against L.A. I think it is a really beautiful place. To be able to surf and get out in the Pacific Ocean every once in a while. The hiking, all of that is amazing. I love it there.
During 'Manchurian Candidate' - that role originated with Laurence Harvey, and I studied everything he did. I would never be able to reproduce that performance, but I got a lot of ideas from watching it.
Everyone assumes that novelists are smarter and more interesting. They're generally smarter and more interesting, but they're often very short. So it kind of cancels all the smart and interesting stuff out.
The celebrity mill is so active these days that actors can make careers out of being themselves, and I don't know that I want to. I think I'm just figuring out how to make a career out of not being myself. It's hard.
Someone very smart once said to me, "Steal, don't borrow." So if there's anything good in anything anyone else does, it's fair game. I think that everything I've ever done at some point is part of someone else's legacy.