I write a lot about my experiences and the people I meet. I've got a lot of material. But a book about me? It seems sort of odd.
— Kevin Spacey
You learn every single day when you're running a company. You learn as you go.
Some politicians that I've seen have been brilliant with the public. They almost speak with the skill of an actor.
People sometimes have to be reminded, I'm not Frank Underwood. I'm an actor named Kevin Spacey.
Over the years, I've spent a lot of time in Washington. It's a great theater town.
The process of doing a play is an organic one, and the process of doing a film is totally inorganic.
You just play what a writer writes, in terms of what a character chooses to do and how a character chooses to deal with their various relationships.
It's extremely dangerous to compare anyone else to Shakespeare.
If there is one thing I object to, it's actors talking about how tough their jobs are.
I think it is just a function of the fact that I moved around so much as a child that I learnt early on to make every place my home.
While the sciences are hugely important, let us not leave behind a child's imagination.
I terribly miss - we all miss, I think - somebody like the great producer Irving Thalberg. He had a foot in both camps: He understood us creative people. And he understood the money people.
London is a very energising place to be.
I love doing impressions.
There does seem to be in the U.S. now an ideology and an entrenchment that has stopped people doing what they are hired to do, which is govern rather than run for office the whole time.
As a producer or financier, you are going to go where you get the best bang for your buck.
I don't even think in terms of ambition.
I cotton to the idea that people are much closer to being flawed; they have problems and don't always make the right choices.
There are ways in which you can make sure that even if people come to the theatre because they know an actor or actress, by the end, they've forgotten that, and they leave going, 'Wow - what an amazing play.'
President Obama will go down as having passed some of the most historic bills in the history of this country.
Have we become so celebrity-obsessed that there is no longer a difference between a character and an actor? I hope not.
As long as we, in the United States, continue to insist that our politicians have to spend all of their time raising millions of dollars for television ads, it will be corrupt. If we leave it up to the politicians to clean up lobbying and finance reform, nothing is going to change.
There's no doubt that some of the greatest films ever made have come from the theater. It's all a matter of finding a way to make the theater experience watchable on film.
A British director directed 'American Beauty,' an important film about American life, and it didn't matter. What only mattered was everyone's sensibility.
I like being able to go to a local pub and have great food and particularly love pubs that welcome my dogs.
I'm always taken aback by things that are successful that I think are just crap, and then I'm completely surprised when things I do end up being successful because you walk into things and you never know... It's just really remarkable.
It's a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.
Storytelling helps us understand each other, translate the issues of our times, and the tools of theater and film can be powerful in helping young people to develop communication/collaboration skills, let alone improving their own confidence.
I was not a studious kid, and I struggled to find things that would command my attention and engage my ideas and energies.
I remember meeting the likes of Johnny Carson and Jimmy Stewart for the first time and being completely starstruck.
I became a bit of a jerk. A kind of a nasty jerk.
Why not sit around a Beverly Hills pool collecting residual cheques? That is not the kind of life I want.
I believe if you go to a movie theatre, and you see something you think is incredible, if you walk out of the theatre and there was a bin in the lobby of DVDs of the film you just watched, you would buy four of them - one for you and three for your friends.
Anytime someone can beat the acting out of someone else, I think it's a wonderful thing.
Edward Norton and I have known each other awhile. I just think he's the real deal, supremely talented and smart. He's got a great sense of humor.
My mother was sarcastic and delightful and, trust me, quite remarkable.
I think that what is truly unfortunate is when an entire party makes a decision that they're going to block every single thing that a president wants to accomplish. It's very - it's very hard to get anything done in those circumstances.
I have to remember if I'm at some charitable event where kids are... I try to remember don't swear in front of the kids!
Meeting the person you are going to be playing is very unique.
Whether it's 'Veep' or 'Homeland' or 'The West Wing' - which is a more idealised version of democracy - people are fascinated by politics.
What hasn't surprised me is that audiences, as we found starting with box sets, want control, to decide how they watch it. Appointment viewing is slowly being put slightly behind.
I don't watch rugby.
I have long been a supporter of The Prince's Trust, and so when American Express asked me to launch 'Amex Be Inspired' and help young people build their confidence and fulfil their potential, I was delighted to get involved.
No one should ever feel sorry for me. I've been treated very well for the most part.
I want to do better. I want to produce better stories. I want to do better plays.
Fundamentally, I like to accomplish things.
What's my favourite book? It changes all the time.
I have wanted to have children. I do want to have children.
If you wanna compete, you've got to get into the original content game.
I can imagine there is going to come a time when someone will do 13 hours of a story without breaks.
