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For Me, Acting Is Torturous, And It's Torturous Because You Know It's A Beautiful Thing. I Was Young Once, And I Said, That's Beautiful And I Want That. Wanting It Is Easy, But Trying To Be Great - Well, That's Absolutely Torturous.

-Philip Seymour Hoffman

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For Me, Acting Is

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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For Me, Acting Is Torturous, And It's Torturous Because You Know It's A Beautiful Thing. I Was Young Once, And I Said, That's Beautiful And I Want That. Wanting It Is Easy, But Trying To Be Great - Well, That's Absolutely Torturous.

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I Think I Would Have Drank Myself To Death, Literally, If I Didn't Just Stop, Once And For All When I Did. I Am Not Ever Going To Preach To Anyone About Drugs Or Drinking. But, For Me, When They Were Around, I Had No Self Control.

I Work Constantly But I Work At A Lot Of Different Things. You Know, I Run A Theater Company In New York, I Direct Plays, Act In Plays, In Movies, So I Try To Keep It Eclectic.

Actors Are Responsible To The People We Play.

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The Film Is Made In The Editing Room. The Shooting Of The Film Is About Shopping, Almost. It's Like Going To Get All The Ingredients Together, And You've Got To Make Sure Before You Leave The Store That You Got All The Ingredients. And Then You Take Those Ingredients And You Can Make A Good Cake - Or Not.

One Person's Religion Is Another Person's Cult.

If I Was A Little Bit Younger I Would Worry More. I'd Want To Do One Thing At A Time But Now I Try To Do A Bunch Of Different Things At A Time If I Can.

You Know The Circus Performer Who Spins The Plates In The Air You Know, And He'll Spin Six Or Seven Plates In The Air? Acting Sometimes Is Kind Of That Guy Spinning All Those Plates In The Air But In Your Head And In Your Body.

Spinning Plates

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Being Unemployed Is Not Good For An Actor. No, It Isn't, No Matter How Unsuccessful You Are. Because You Always Remember Getting Fired From All The Restaurants. You Remember That Stuff Very, Very Strongly.

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I Had A Father Who Was A Traveling Salesman.

I Know That Obviously, That If You Want To Get The Story, If You Want To Get Close To Somebody, If You Want To Find Out What Is Really The Truth Or What's Really Interesting, You Have To Create A Trust Between These Two Things, Between The Journalist And The Subject.

I Would Definitely Say Pleasure Is Not Happiness. Because I Think I Kill Pleasure. Like I Take Too Much Of It In, And Therefore Make It Un-pleasurable, Like Too Much Coffee, And You're Miserable.

I Was Probably Finding My Feet More Than Anybody. I Really Have To Say I Was More Obsessed With Myself Faltering Than Anybody Else.

A Lot Of People Describe Me As Chubby, Which Seems So Easy, So First-choice. Or Stocky. Fair-skinned. Tow-headed. There Are So Many Other Choices. How About Dense? I Mean, I'm A Thick Kind Of Guy. But I'm Never Described In Attractive Ways. I'm Waiting For Somebody To Say I'm At Least Cute. But Nobody Has.

People Aren't Going To Throw The Kind Of Money At Certain People That They Used To.

I've Been Reading A Bunch Of Stuff Lately - Like Joseph Campbell - That Has Made Me Realize That People In Our Cultural, Especially In The Liberal Community, Often Go In Search Of A Foe. It's Like We Always Need A Hill To Climb Up Or Something To Push Against, Or We Feel As If We're Not Working Constructively In The World.

People Actually Live With Their Id Exposed. They're Not Good At Concealing What's Going On Inside.

I Have An Awful Memory, And I Have A Great Memory. Meaning That, If I'm Trying To Remember Something, I Can't Remember It. But My Recall Is Fantastic.

If I'm Directing Actors, I Learn About Acting That Way. If I'm Acting, I Learn About Directing That Way. Producing Is Just Something That's Come About Because There's Projects I Find Interesting That I Would Like To Help Get Done.

I Have Three Children And I Think I'm Happy When I'm With Them And They're Okay. When I See Them Enjoying Each Other In Front Of Me, And Then They Let Me Enjoy Them In Turn. That Brings A Feeling Which I Would Say Is Happiness.

I Always Knew Where I Needed To Go But I Sometimes Had A Problem Getting There, So I Had To Work Harder At It. Once In A While I'd Wanna Take Off The Blouse And Heels Because I'd Get That "i Just Wanna Be A Guy" Feeling I Had When Growing Up.

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You Have To Have A Personal Connection. You Have To Really Want To Do It, Because If You Don't, Investing Yourself Personally, Your Thoughts, Your Emotions, Yourself Into A Part, Is Something You're Not Going To Want To Do As Much.

If All People Are Encouraged To Actually See Who They're Coexisting With, Or Even If They're Not Coexisting With Other People.it's Like To Look At The World You're In.

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I Think Good Art, If I Could Be Pretentious Enough To Say, I Think Good Art Deals With The Micro To Explain The Macro.

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Have A Great Day

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A Self-awareness Moment. All Of A Sudden Everything He Has Done Comes Flashing Into His Mind, A Self-criticism That Is Unbearable.

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There's Nothing Risky In Talking About Your Personal Life. People Do It All The Time.

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Yeah, Writers Do Hate Writing.

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You Have All The Influence You Choose To Have.

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Playing Someone

The Weight Comes Off, You Know? If You Stop With The Bread And The Pie, It Really Does. It Really Works.

Great Talent Admits Shortcomings.

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My Mum's Name Is Marilyn O'connor. She's Here Tonight And I Would Like If You See Her For You To Congratulate Her Because She Brought Up Four Kids Alone And She Deserves Congratulations For That.

Congratulations

My Love For The Theater Has Always Been A Priority. That Hasn't Changed. I Got Into Acting That Way. The Film Work That Came Up Was Really A Surprise.

I Know I Wasn't As Handsome As Some Other Guys, But I Was Ok With That.

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Ultimately, I Think Writing Is A Mixture Of Craft, Inspiration, And Being Incredibly, Courageously Explorative With Yourself - And Being Brutally Honest, Too.

I Don't Get Nervous When I'm Directing A Play. It's Not Like Acting.

I Think You Should Be Serious About What You Do Because This Is It. This Is The Only Life You've Got.

You Can Look At Anything As A Cult. Churches Are Cults In Their Own Way.

The Ambition, The Drive, The Wanting To Be The Center Of Attention, The Wanting To Succeed... They're All Inside Me Somewhere.

Center Of Attention

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The Drama Nerd Comes Out In Me When I'm In A Theater.

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I Didn't Really Buy Lps Or Go To Concerts.

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I Feel Like The Need To Want To Create And Make Something Is Stronger Than The Difficulties Are Going Through.

I Feel Like I Made A Little Bit Of Difference.

I Was A Breed Of People Who Aren't Capable Of Doing Anything, Really. At College I Began To Get The Idea That Being Macho Wasn't The Accepted Norm In The Liberal World, And Especially The World I Entered Into, Which Was The Artistic World. I Had A Lot Of Problems With That Because I Was Struggling With The Need To Be Proud Of Being A Man, Which Wasn't Something I Was Feeling.

My Mum Is Incredibly Intelligent.

There’s A Period Of Time In Your Life When I Kind Of Look Back, And I’m Like, Was I Happy, Or Was I Just Not Aware?

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In Order For Something To Be Born, Something Has To Die.that's Not Always, But There Is Something About That That I Find To Be True. That Is, It's A Natural Thing.

Sometimes It's Hard To Say No. Ultimately, If You Stick To Your Guns, You Have The Career That You Want. Don't Get Me Wrong. I Love A Good Payday And I'll Do Films For Fun. But Ultimately My Main Goal Is To Do Good Work. If It Doesn't Pay Well, So Be It.

Directing Is A Really Kind Of Amazing Thing, Because You're Helping Others And, In The Middle Of That, You Have To Worry About Yourself.

My Girlfriend's A Costume Designer In The Theater.

Being With A Kid Always Takes You To Being A Kid Somehow, And They Really Are Showing Me A Childhood I Might Not Have Had In Some Way.

I Got Into Plays In High School Then I Ended Up Going To College For It.

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