Quotes about Acting

I started writing and acting in these little plays and then I was discovered by Dustin Hoffman. He got me my first audition for a film he was in, called 'I Heart Huckabees.'

So I sat down with him and portrayed more the side of the character he needed to see. Which is what I do when I go in for an interview for a part I like. As much as you think you're dealing with creative people, they see you for what your image is out there.

I can't give you 150 takes. I can't even give you 30 different ways of doing it! I don't have the talent or the range for it.

It's simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they're done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it's what they see. That's where my head is at.

I was told to avoid the business all together because of the rejection. People would say to me, 'Don't you want to have a normal job and a normal family?' I guess that would be good advice for some people, but I wanted to act.

I read a lot of scripts that I just don't find very funny.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the author chooses, - if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be his pleasure that you should enact a poor man, see that you act it well; or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen. For this is your business, to act well the given part; but to choose it, belongs to another.

My parents' divorce left me with a lot of sadness and pain and acting, and especially humour, was my way of dealing with all that.

I think everything that any actor does, I would assume, is shaped by how and where they grew up.

The fear of God is the death of every other fear; like a mighty lion, it chases all other fears before it." —Charles Spurgeon   "We are more concerned about looking stupid (fear of people) than we are about acting sinfully (fear of the Lord)." —Edward T. Welch

parents are heroes already—all they have to do is start acting like it.

Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for.