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If It Starts To Drag On Set, Or If You Feel Like It's Not A Fun Experience, People Get Down, The Energy Gets Down. You've Got To Keep The Energy Up.
-Bill Murray
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If It Starts To

Bill Murray
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If It Starts To Drag On Set, Or If You Feel Like It's Not A Fun Experience, People Get Down, The Energy Gets Down. You've Got To Keep The Energy Up.

Understanding the Quote: "if it starts to drag on set, or if you feel like..."

This quote by Bill Murray reflects deeply on the theme of fun. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Fun, People, Energy, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Bill Murray interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Bill Murray

Bill Murray is celebrated for insightful thoughts on fun and people. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Fun
People
Energy
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I Don't Believe That You Can Give The Same Performance Every Take. It's Physically Impossible, So Why Bother? If You Don't Do What Is Happening At That Moment, Then It's Not Real. Then You're Holding Something Back.
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Acting
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People
Want
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When The Phone Started Ringing Too Many Times, I Had To Take It Back To What I Can Handle. I Take My Chances On A Job Or A Person As Opposed To A Situation. I Don't Like To Have A Situation Placed Over My Head.
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Underwear
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Easter
Atheist
Human Sacrifice! Dogs And Cats Living Together! Mass Hysteria!
Dog
Cat
Sacrifice
If You Have A Good Script, That's What Gets You Involved. It's Harder To Write A Good Screenplay Than To Find Something.
Writing
Scripts
Harder
My Back Hurts. My Legs Ache. I'm Only Four!
Hurt
Four
Legs
I Think If You Can Take Care Of Yourself, And Then Maybe Try To Take Care Of Someone Else, That's Sort Of How You're Supposed To Live.
Thinking
Trying
Care
We're Americans! Do You Know What That Means? It Means Our Forefathers Were Kicked Out Of Every Decent Country In The World.
Country
Travel
Home
Be Available For Life To Happen.
Happens
Available
I Smell Varmint Poontang. And The Only Good Varmint Poontang Is Dead Varmint Poontang, I Think.
Thinking
Smell
Shack
People Say I'm Difficult And Sometimes That's A Badge Of Honour.
People
Sometimes
Badges
In Japan, You Have No Idea What They Are Saying, And They Can't Help You Either. Nothing Makes Any Sense. They're Very Polite, But You Feel Like A Joke Is Being Played On You The Entire Time You're There.
Japan
Ideas
Helping
Everyone Needs To Take A Vacation From The Sort Of Automatic Things You Do.
Vacation
Needs
I Think We're All Sort Of Imprisoned By - Or At Least Bound To - The Choices We Make... You Want To Say No At The Right Time And You Want To Say Yes More Sparingly.
Thinking
Choices
Want
My Favorite Thing About New York Is The People, Because I Think They’re Misunderstood. I Don’t Think People Realize How Kind New York People Are.
New York
Thinking
People
When You Act Obnoxious Towards People, Like On A Movie Set, They Say "we're Ready For You" And I Say "oh, Go To Hell, My Feet Hurt And My Head Aches." You Want To Have A Margarita For Lunch, And People Like These Little Ads And Production Assistants Are Like, "well, He's Drinking Again."
Hurt
Drinking
Lunch
We're Creating A Tv Show Of Scrooge, Starring Jamie Farr, With Buddy Hackett As Scrooge. We're Shooting In This Victorian Set For Weeks, And Hackett Is Pissed All The Time, Angry That He's Not The Center Of Attention, And Finally We Get To The Scene Where We've Gotta Shoot Him At The Window, Saying, "go Get My Boots," Or Whatever. The Set Is Stocked With Victorian Extras And Little Children In Oliver Kind Of Outfits, And The Director Says, "all Right, Bud - Just Give It Whatever You Want." And Hackett Goes Off On A Rant. Unbelievably Obscene.
Children
Tv Shows
Creating
Why Would You Get Up There And Bore People? I Never Have Figured That Out. These People Are Supposedly In The Entertainment Industry, And They Finally Get Up There To That Podium And They Become The Most Boring People In The World.
People
Acting
World
Parties Are Only Bad When A Fight Breaks Out, When Men Fight Over Women Or Vice Versa. Someone Takes A Fall, An Ambulance Comes, And The Police Arrive. If You Can Avoid Those Things, Pretty Much All Behaviour Is Acceptable.
Party
Fall
Fighting
There Are A Lot Of Actors That Are More Talented Than Me At Second City Who Quit It Before They Even Got To A Paying Status. Weird Luck. I Had No Other Option.
Cities
Luck
Actors
I'm A Nut, But Not Just A Nut.
Funny
Nuts
Insanity
It's The Most Terrifying Day Of Your Life, The Day The First One Is Born. Your Life, As You Know It, Is Gone. Never To Return. But They Learn How To Walk, And They Learn How To Talk, And You Want To Be With Them. And They Turn Out To Be The Most Delightful People You'll Ever Meet In Your Life.
Love
Inspiring
Dream
I Didn't Get Into This Position By Being Like A Stiff Sitting On The Set In A Folding Chair. I Did It By Walking Around On The Streets And Stirring Things Up.
Sitting
Chairs
Folding
I Don't Answer Fan Mail. I Don't Have Time For That. It's Like Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Who Think They're Going To Become Millionaires Getting Autographs From Movie Actors. I Don't Have Time For Those Idiots. I've Got Stuff To Do.
Thinking
People
Fans
I Think There's Only So Many People That Can Take Care Of Themselves, And Can Take Care Of Other People. And The Rest Of The People … They're Useful In Terms Of Compost For The Whole Planet, You Know.
Thinking
People
Care
I Think Midlife Crisis Is Just A Point Where People's Careers Have Reached Some Plateau And They Have To Reflect On Their Personal Relationships.
Thinking
Careers
People
I'd Sort Of Gone Through Some Sort Of Spiritual Change In The Late 70s Where I Sort Of Saw There Was Some Other Life To Live. It Changed The Way That I Worked Just Having A Different Presence And A Different Tension.
Spiritual
Different
Gone
To People Who Want To Be Rich And Famous, I'd Say, "get Rich First And See If That Doesn't Cover It."
People
Want
Firsts
The Automatic Things You Do Are Basically Those Things That Keep You From Doing The Better Things You Need To Do.
Needs
One Of The Things I Like About Acting Is That, In A Funny Way, I Come Back To Myself.
Acting
Way
If It Starts To Drag On Set, Or If You Feel Like It's Not A Fun Experience, People Get Down, The Energy Gets Down. You've Got To Keep The Energy Up.
Fun
People
Energy
Eh, It's Not That Attractive To Have A Plan. I Know That If I Ever Feel That I Need To Make A Funny Movie, I’ll Figure Out How To Write One. I’ll Get It Done. If I Ever Get Some Ambition, I’m Gonna Get Some Shit Done.
Attractive
Plans
The Human Condition Means That We Can Zone Out And Forget What The Hell We're Doing.
Mean
Forget
Hell
It's A Lot Of Work To Read A Crummy Script.
Scripts
I Don't Want To Be That Guy Mumbling Into His Drink At A Bar.
Guy
Bars
Want
People Are Like Music, Some Speak The Truth And Others Are Just Noise.
Music
Truth
Honesty
The Truth Is, Anybody That Becomes Famous Is An Ass For A Year And A Half. You've Got To Give Them A Year And A Half, Two Years. They Are Getting So Much Smoke Blown, And Their Whole World Gets So Turned Upside Down, Their Responses Become Distorted. I Give Everybody A Year Or Two To Pull It Together Because, When It First Happens, I Know How It Is.
Years
Two
Giving
It's Hard To Be An Artist. It's Hard To Be Anything. It's Hard To Be.
Artist
Hard
Common Sense Is Like Deodorant. The People Who Need It Most Never Use It.
People
Common Sense
Needs
Yeah, I Think That's Sort Of The American Way. And It's Also The Polish Way, It Turns Out.
Thinking
Way
Yeah
Every Pizza Is A Personal Pizza If You Try Hard And Believe In Yourself.
Believe
Trying
Hard
The More Relaxed You Are, The Better You Are At Everything: The Better You Are With Your Loved Ones, The Better You Are With Your Enemies, The Better You Are At Your Job, The Better You Are With Yourself.
Jobs
Work
Comedian
We Still Have To Put Some Cherry Syrup On It, And Then We Can Eat It
Ice Cream
Syrup
Cherries
You Have To Be As Light As You Can Be And Not Get Weighed Down And Stuck In Your Emotion, Stuck In Your Body, Stuck In Your Head. You Just Want To Always Be Trying To Elevate Somehow.
Light
Trying
Body
Golf Was My First Glimpse Of Comedy. I Was A Caddy When I Was A Kid. I Was On The Golf Course Rather Than Being In Lessons, But I Can Play Better Now Than I Could Then.
Kids
Golf
Play
Morocco Is The Greatest. I Should Be Getting Money From The Moroccans Because I'm Just Telling Everyone That It's A Wonderful Place To Go.
Morocco
Places To Go
Get Money
I Think That The Online World Has Actually Brought Books Back. People Are Reading Because They're Reading The Damn Screen. That's More Reading Than People Used To Do.
Book
Reading
Thinking
When You Did The Job, You Thought You Were Just Trying To Amuse Your Friends Who Are All On The Job. I'm Just Trying To Make The Sound Guy Laugh, The Script Supervisor. A Movie Like Caddyshack, I Can Walk On A Golf Course And Some Guy Will Be Screaming Entire Scenes At Me And Expecting Me To Do It Word For Word With Him. It's Like, 'fella, I Did That Once. I Improvised That Scene. I Don't Remember How It Goes'. But I'm Charmed By It. I'm Not Like, 'hey, Knock It Off'. It's Kind Of Cool.
Jobs
Golf
Laughing
And When I Told My Sons I Might Be In City Of Ember, They Said, 'oh! You're Gonna Be The Mayor?' And I Hadn't Even Read The Script Yet.
Son
Cities
Might
I Improvise Whenever I Feel It's Important, Or Whenever I Think That Something's There. It's Nice To Have A Script That's So Well-written That I Don't Have To Improvise. I Mean, I Used To Have To Re-write Whole Movies; This Is Kind Of Nice.
Nice
Writing
Mean
The Army Needs Leaders The Way A Foot Needs A Big Toe.
Humorous
Army
Feet
Most People, When They Talk Fast, They Get Flat.
People
Flats
You Cannot Pray Them Out Of Hell.
Scary
Praying
Hell
When I Was A Little Kid Playing Baseball, My Manager Called Me Sleepy. And Only A Few People, Who Know Me From Way, Way Back, Call Me That Still. I Used To Drift Off And That's Why They Made Me The Catcher, So I Wouldn't Fall Asleep. That Gift I Have Still.
Baseball
Fall
Kids
There's Definitely A Lot Of Trash That Comes With The Prize Of Being Famous. It's A Nice Gift, But There's A Lot Of Wrapping And Paper And Junk To Cut Through. Back Then, When A Movie Came Out And People Saw You On The Street, Their Reaction Was So Supercharged That It Was Scary. It Would Frighten Other People. It Used To Really Rattle Me. I Mean, Everybody Would Love To Have Their Clothes Torn Off By A Mob Of Girls, But Being Screamed At Is Different.
Girl
Nice
Mean
This Is Not A Dress Rehearsal; This Is Your Life.
Dresses
Rehearsal
Chicago Actors Are Hard-nosed. They're Tough On Themselves And Their Fellow Actors. They're Self-demanding.
Self
Chicago
Actors
When I Started, The Scripts Weren't As Good, And You'd Have To Have A Huge Burst Of Energy To Go, "sheesh, How Am I Going To? This Stuff's No Good." So You'd Have To Improvise Something Or Create Something Or Try To Work With The Ware And Try To Figure Out, How Do You Make This Visually And Orally Acceptable, Entertaining? Nowadays, The Scripts Are Just So Much Better, That You Don't Have To Feel That Way. You Feel Like The Script's Coming To You, You Can Just Relax. You Don't Have To Drive The Boat.
Trying
Relax
Energy
People Usually Go Through A Bad Period When They First Get Successful. You're New And You're Hot And Things Go Wrong.
Successful
People
Hot
I Go Home And Stay There. I Wash And Scrub Up Each Day, And That's It. One Month I Actually Grew A Moustache, Just So I Could Say That I'd Done Something.
Home
Mustache
Months
So Far, I've Only Sailed In The Caribbean. I've Sailed The Virgin Island And The Grenadines. I Liked All That. We Charted Some Really Crummy Boats In The Grenadines. That Made For An Exciting Sailing Trip (laughs) When Everything Goes Well. When Everything Goes Well. When Sails Rip, Engines Freeze Up And You Find There Are Organisms Growing Inside The Diesel, It's Terrible And Amazing Stuff.
Rip
Islands
Laughing
I'm Not An Alcoholic, I Only Drink Two Times A Year. When It's My Birthday, And When It's Not My Birthday.
Years
Two
My Birthday
But I Can Only Take So Much Tv, Because There Is So Much Advice. I Find People Will Preach About Virtually Anything - Your Diet, How To Live Your Life, How To Improve Your Golf. The Lot. I Have Always Had A Thing Against The Mister Know-it-alls.
Golf
People
Advice
I Don't Know What My Fans Are Going To Think. It's Definitely Not What They're Used To From Me.
Thinking
Fans
Used
The First Year I Had Money, I Really Went Shopping. I Got Really Caught Up In It. I Bought All My Brothers Sets Of Luggage, And I Bought 'em Winter Coats From Giorgio Armani - Winter Coats. And I Got A Pair Of Socks From This Brother.
Brother
Winter
Years
I Don't Really Read The Reviews, But I Remember One A Long Time Ago I Read That Said That I Had A Face Like A Potato.
Long
Faces
Potatoes
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