As a motivation in itself, celebrity is foolhardy and stupid.
— Christoph Waltz
Cary Grant is really the master of not taking himself so seriously.
Everything that happens later in life is appreciated in a different way. You can appreciate the thing for what it is, which you couldn't if you were 25 and had never experienced much else. You would take it all for granted and think that's what life is like.
I know from my experience in theater that the crowd is different every night; the reactions, the tension. But it's true for film as well, going from country to country and culture to culture. The difference between California and New York responses, for example. It's really fascinating.
It took me a lot of times watching it that I started to appreciate 'Pulp Fiction.'
I've done so many jobs because I've had to, not because I've wanted to. And it's honourable to do a job because you need to feed your children, and maybe there is also something in it for your development as an actor. But only up to a point.
It would be completely laughable if I claimed I was always motivated by the pure craft of acting and that recognition doesn't play a part. Of course it does - that's human nature.
Our hubris needs to be downsized, thinking that profiteering on Earth, on whatever level - environmentally, economically, culturally - is unlimited and everybody should get as much as he wants or she wants. Humans need to be shrunk again to their actual size.
The fact that Facebook presents facial recognition programmes as a desirable development, well, that in itself is a decisive step toward fascism, as far as I'm concerned.
It bothers me that people who should know better believe a glossy magazine fantasy.
I'm open to working anywhere, but not on anything.
By looking into more details of American history, we can make more sense of what's happening today.
Well, you need the villain. If you don't have a villain, the good guy can stay home.
Ten flashing lights are a nuisance but 500 are fantastic.
For a while, I couldn't decide whether or not I should pursue singing in the opera or acting. And I'm glad that I chose the latter because I wasn't a very good singer.
You can't always do the extraordinary, in between you have to do the ordinary. Because if you didn't, what would constitute the extraordinary?
You see, my version of why anyone would want to become an actor is that it's some psychological fixation, something that happened in puberty that you didn't outgrow in time, which is normal. Nevertheless, if you make it a profession, it can be really neurotic.
The thing about 'Spectre' is that it is not the work of hack writers. It does not have a hack director. The actors are not hams.
'The Philadelphia Story' is one of my favorite movies.
Europeans still believe that working is for living. Americans often have that the other way around.
I've always been able to work as an actor and support my family and did great jobs, and more often than not, I got to turn down jobs that I didn't really want to do for various reasons or refuse to work with people I didn't like - and there are quite a few.
Something that is very special today might not be special tomorrow, but to hold it, to grasp it, to keep it, to make it special, to elevate it from the ordinary, that's when you open up the champagne. To make it sparkle.
There is no such thing as pure art. It's a bourgeois conceit.
Sometimes I do stuff where people say, 'Why did you do that?' And you know, it's very simple. I do it because I've never done it before.
The actor is there to translate what's on the page onto the stage or the screen. So I find it important that an actor manages to actually get out of the way, vanish as a person behind the character, never to be seen or talked about again. That's my philosophy.
I think Stephen Sondheim is a - and I hardly ever use this word - but this is as close as it gets to a genius.
You get hit over the knuckles enough, you don't stick them out anymore.
Becoming an actor is like becoming a father. It's not hard to become one. Making a life of it is the challenge.
My agent is the quickest, sharpest man on earth.
I'm not really all that familiar with comic book culture.
I used to hate exposure situations. What is generally referred to as 'red carpet.'
When a new book comes out or becomes accessible in whatever form, I get it and I read it.
I have always been so interested in film as a medium.
You know, I don't support esoteric approaches to acting.
A James Bond film can be artistically fulfilling. Absolutely it can. It can be complex, and it can be interesting. I consider Bond movies to be an extension of popular theatre, a kind of modern mythology. You see the same sort of action in 'Punch and Judy' or in the folk theatre of various cultures, like 'Grand Guignol.'
There is one thing I do miss in L.A. I love autumn.
It's a misconception that you don't have seasons in southern California. They are just very subtle. The vegetation is very different. Plants react differently. You just have to be a little more observant.
I wouldn't really, realistically speaking, know the difference between wearing an S.S. uniform and a U.S. Marine uniform. To me it's all a uniform.
It's not the number of trucks parked outside that make a movie interesting but if you have more money, you have more time. More time enables you to try out other possibilities or follow an interesting lead. I don't like indulgence, but to have more possibilities is always more interesting.
The bohemian artist who exists only for his art, it's a myth. OK, it might have been true for Giacometti, but it certainly wasn't for Picasso or Mozart.
I am almost neurotically private myself. Because I think it's an important distinction to make between privacy and public sphere.
Look at ISIS - without the Internet, they wouldn't exist in the same form. The Internet didn't create them, but the Internet facilitates them. And as we know from history, the facilitation is more dangerous than the cause, because the cause can be dealt with, but the facilitation is elusive.
Stephen Sondheim I am in awe of.
It's easy to not feel misplaced if this tidal wave of appreciation is coming your way.
I'm trying to be very aware of not repeating myself.
The villain is usually the most interesting part. But it has to be a smart thing. Just dumb cliche villains with a Russian accent and big muscles and a mean face, I don't know. My Russian accent isn't that great, and the muscles aren't that big and the mean face is not enough. You know what I mean? It gets very boring. Tedious stuff.
I'm very bad with improvisation. I hate it.
I think in Europe, movies are made like a commodity and then sold as art.
You know, I don't talk about the characters that I play. Years ago, I was a little timid about it and I kind of squirmed when I was asked, 'Could you tell us something about your character.' Now with a little self-confidence that comes with the grey beard, I just flatly refuse.
It's a wonderful narrative device to bring someone from the outside and look through his eyes if you want to describe the absurdity and preposterous reality that is accepted amongst the ones who are inside.
