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Frankly, I Get Much More Sensitive About What's Written About Me Than How I Look In A Photo. I'm So Used To People Seeing My Image In Plays And Films That What They Think About How I Look Is None Of My Business. If They Says, "hey, He Doesn't Look Good," I'm Like, Whatever, Because I Know I Look Different From Day To Day. But If You're Up There Putting Your Heart Into Something And People Reject Your Performance, That's Very Painful. The Written Word Can Kick Your Ass.

-Philip Seymour Hoffman

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Frankly, I Get Much

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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Frankly, I Get Much More Sensitive About What's Written About Me Than How I Look In A Photo. I'm So Used To People Seeing My Image In Plays And Films That What They Think About How I Look Is None Of My Business. If They Says, "hey, He Doesn't Look Good," I'm Like, Whatever, Because I Know I Look Different From Day To Day. But If You're Up There Putting Your Heart Into Something And People Reject Your Performance, That's Very Painful. The Written Word Can Kick Your Ass.

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Well, I Think Everyone Struggles With Self-love.

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

To Be Loved, I Think, Is The Thing That Gets You Up In The Morning.

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.

The Foibles Of My Body Are Pretty Much Out There In The Work I Do.

I Have A Fine Level Of Recognition In The Business And Among The Acting Community Now, So I Consider Myself One Of The Lucky Ones. If I Didn't Think That, There Would Be Something Wrong With Me. I'm Grateful And Thankful For What I've Got.

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.

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

Acting Is So Difficult For Me That, Unless The Work Is Of A Certain Stature In My Mind, Unless I Reach The Expectations I Have Of Myself, I'm Unhappy. Then It's A Miserable Existence. I'm Putting A Piece Of Myself Out There. If It Doesn't Do Anything, I Feel So Ashamed. I'm Afraid I'll Be The Kind Of Actor Who Thought He Would Make A Difference And Didn't. Right Now, Though, I Feel Like I Made A Little Bit Of Difference.

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.

Ultimately, All Characters Have Some Negative And Positive Energies. That's Just How I See It. I Didn't Go Out Looking For Negative Characters; I Went Out Looking For People Who Have A Struggle And A Fight To Tackle. That's What Interests Me.

I Feel Like I Made A Little Bit Of Difference.

Well, In The Theater, I Think You're Actually More Responsible For What Is Going On Onstage As A Director Than You Are In Film.

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

I Try Not To Plan That Too Much.

I've Seen A Lot Of Friends Who Have A Lot Of Great Projects, Whether It's A Script Or A Play Or Whatever, And It Is A Great Project And They Have Great People Involved, And They Can't Make It.

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

In Film, You Have To Let Go Sometimes.

Sometimes I'm Uncomfortable With The Level Of Fame I've Got! It All Depends On The Day And What's Going On. I Don't Desire Any More Fame. I Don't Need It.

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 Try To Live My Life In Such A Way That I Don't Have Any Regrets. That's Probably Why I Work So Much. I Don't Want To Feel I Missed Something Important.

Frankly, I Get Much More Sensitive About What's Written About Me Than How I Look In A Photo. I'm So Used To People Seeing My Image In Plays And Films That What They Think About How I Look Is None Of My Business. If They Says, "hey, He Doesn't Look Good," I'm Like, Whatever, Because I Know I Look Different From Day To Day. But If You're Up There Putting Your Heart Into Something And People Reject Your Performance, That's Very Painful. The Written Word Can Kick Your Ass.

My Mum Is Incredibly Intelligent.

It's Important To Say That Actors Can't Act Alone, It's Impossible. What We Have To Do Is Support Each Other.

My Image Of Jesus Is Someone Who Is Exciting...were He Alive Today, He Would Be Causing Havoc!

Yeah, Writers Do Hate Writing.

You Have All The Influence You Choose To Have.

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 Didn't Have Any Idea That I Would Be Able To Have A Career In Film.

There Are A Lot Of Things Going On With My Life Right Now That Don't Just Have To Do With Career. So I Have A Hard Time Making Decisions About Work. That's Really A Luxury Problem.

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

If You Get A Chance To Act In A Room That Somebody Else Has Paid Rent For, Then You're Given A Free Chance To Practice Your Craft.

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

When You Read, You Think, And When You Smoke, You Think. It's A Pleasurable Thing, And Not A Duty.

All Over The World, Young Men And Young Women Will Always Dream Dreams.

You Must Be Really Bad, Because It Is A Puzzle. Creating Anything Is Hard. It’s A Cliché Thing To Say, But Every Time You Start A Job, You Just Don’t Know Anything. I Mean, I Can Break Something Down, But Ultimately I Don’t Know Anything When I Start Work On A New Movie. You Start Stabbing Out, And You Make A Mistake, And It’s Not Right, And Then You Try Again And Again. The Key Is You Have To Commit. And That’s Hard Because You Have To Find What It Is You Are Committing To.

The Strange Thing Is I Never Thought I'd Do Films.

Women Are The Life Force We Look At For Their Beauty.

You Have To Understand That Crew Members Make Movies So They're Seeing A Lot Of Actors All The Time In Their Career Acting.

I Think You Gotta Have An Honesty And A Humility About Human Nature And That It's Not About You At The End Of The Day.

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

When You're Acting, You're Subjective; When You're A Director, You're More Objective.you're Kind Of Watching From The Outside And Helping Others, And Therefore I Learn My Mistakes Through Others, And Also My Assets Through Others.

Vanity Is Something That Will Only Get In The Way Of Doing Your Best Work, And Ultimately If You're Truly Vain You Care More About Your Work Than How You Look In Your Work. I Actually Consider Myself A Pretty Vain Guy When It Comes To That.

We Really Enjoy That, Having A Relationship With Writers, Developing Material And Getting A Director, Actors, That We Have Kind Of That Family Kind Of As A Group We're Going To Do It Together Mentality In A Project. Then The Tough Part Is - So What Actually Goes Has Very Little To Do With Us Sometimes.

Don't Let People Treat You Like A Cigarette, They Only Use You When They're Bored And Step On You When They're Done. Be Like Drugs, Let Them Die For You.

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Spinning Plates

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I Always Thought I'd Be A New York Theater Actor, Riding My Bicycle To Rehearsal. That Was All I Ever Wanted.

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

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When You See The Carrot At The End Of The Stick, What Do You Do To Get It? These Kinds Of Things That Come Up, That Come Up In The Story Of Capote Writing "in Cold Blood," And When You See The Movie, You'll See What I'm Talking About.

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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.

Study, Find All The Good Teachers And Study With Them, Get Involved In Acting To Act, Not To Be Famous Or For The Money. Do Plays. It's Not Worth It If You Are Just In It For The Money. You Have To Love It.

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

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

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.

If You're A Human Being Walking The Earth, You're Weird, You're Strange, You're Psychologically Challenged.

I Think Magnolia Is One Of The Best Films I've Ever Seen And I Can Say That Straight And Out And Anybody That Disagrees With Me I'll Fight You To The Death. I Just Think It Is One Of The Greatest Films I've Ever Been In And Ever Seen.

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

There's Things That You Don't Want To Do And They Keep Haunting You And Following You. Bennett Miller Directed This Project [capote], Who Is A Friend Of Mine Since I Was 16, And Danny Futterman Wrote It, And He's Also Been A Friend Of Mine Since I Was 16.

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Why You Do Something Is Always Kind Of A Mystery To Me.

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When You Become A Parent, You Look At Your Parents Differently. You Look At Being A Child Differently. It's An Awakening, A Revelation That You Have.

I Have So Much Empathy For These Young Actors That Are 19 And All Of A Sudden They're Beautiful And Famous And Rich. I'm Like, 'oh My God, I'd Be Dead.'

I Like To Come To The Set With Very Strong Ideas And Strong Opinions About How To Do Things. And I Like Also Dealing With Somebody Who's Like That.

Good Work Is The Only Thing That Would Make Me Feel Jealous Or Envious.

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When You're Playing Someone Who Really Lived, You Carry A Burden, A Burden To Be Accurate. But It's One That You Have To Let Go Of Ultimately.

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When You're Playing Someone Who Really Lived, You Carry A Burden, A Burden To Be Accurate.

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Center Of Attention

I Had A Father Who Was A Traveling Salesman.

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.

I Don't Know, I Was Young, I Drank Too Much, You Know, So I Stopped. You Know What I Mean, It's Not Really Complicated. I Had No Interest In Drinking In Moderation. And I Still Don't. Just Because All That Time's Passed Doesn't Mean Maybe It Was Just A Phase. That's You Know, That's Who I Am.

I Think Therapy Is A Helpful Thing. I Think Everyone Knows It. You Do It For Your Life, You Do It For Yourself, Because You Want To Explore Some Things, And Get At The Bottom Of Some Things. It's About Your Life, The Quality Of Your Life.

I Didn't Go Out Looking For Negative Characters; I Went Out Looking For People Who Have A Struggle And A Fight To Tackle. That's What Interests Me.

When You Think About [truman] Capote In The - Was What He Did Exploitative Of A Person's Life Or Exploitative Of These Murders? You Look At Our Culture Now, You Look At Celebrity And How It Plays Out In Our Culture Now, And Capote Was One Of The Great Pr Men Of His Time.

The Film Is Made In The Editing Room.

I Don't Want To Repeat Myself. I'm Not Going To Play A Guy Like Allen In Happiness Again Any Time Soon Because I Did That And I Don't Want To Tarnish Or Dilute That Film By Doing It Again, Maybe Less Well.

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.

Creating Anything Is Hard.

Ultimately What I'll Do Next Is Up In The Air For Me.

The Only True Currency In This Bankrupt World Is What You Share With Someone Else When You're Uncool.

Film's Hard When You Don't Have Any Relationship With The Director At All And You Just Show Up. Then You Really Are Just A Gun For Hire.

I Would Never Not Work On The Part Without It Playing. That's What Being An Actor Is. You Use Everything That's Influenced You To Help You Get Out Of Yourself Or Be More Creative.

With "good Night, And Good Luck," I Think It's Kind Of Obvious What [truman Capote]'s Getting At There, And The Importance Of How It's Playing Out Today, That Is Journalism Doing, Are The Journalists Doing Their Job, Are They Being The Other Checks And Balances In Our Country That The Way That Obviously Edward R. Murrow Was Back Then.

Creating Something Is All About Problem-solving.

Creating Something

To Act Well Isn't An Easy Thing.

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.

Acting's Difficult For Me Because I Think You Have To Be Passionately Involved In What You're Doing.

There Are Characters In Movies Who I Call 'film Characters.' They Don't Exist In Real Life. They Exist To Play Out A Scenario. They Can Be In Fantastic Films, But They Are Not Real Characters; What Happens To Them Is Not Lifelike.

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 Know Some Really Great Actors Who Are Pretty Judgmental People, Pretty Critical People. But They're Great Actors. When They're Acting, That's The Craft.

Life Is Short. Time Is Short. As We Get Older, Time Does Quicken. It's Long, And It's Long Pertaining To That Thought, That The Past Is Not Done With You Because You Can't Rid Of It.

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 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.

I Like So Many Different Kinds Of Music Just Because All I Did Was Listen To The Radio As A Kid.

I Think You Ultimately Have To Love Who You're Playing. You Have To Have That Kind Of Feeling. You Have To Have Passion For The Person.

Great Talent Admits Shortcomings.

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

Life's Pretty Funny When You're Objectively On The Outside Looking At It.

I've Grown To Really Love Musicals, You Know?

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