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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.

-Philip Seymour Hoffman

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Study, Find All The

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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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.

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More From Philip Seymour Hoffman

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.

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.

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 Do Feel Like All The People I Meet, All The People I'm In Discussions With, If I'm Working With Somebody, I Sense The Same Energy That Everybody Is Suffering From The Same Predicament.

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

Films Are Always A Fiction, Not Documentary. Even A Documentary Is A Kind Of Fiction.

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

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.

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

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.

Actors Are Responsible To The People We Play.

I Try Not To Plan That Too Much.

Success Isn't What Makes You Happy. It Really Isn't. Success Is Doing What Makes You Happy And Doing Good Work And Hopefully Having A Fruitful Life. If I've Felt Like I've Done Good Work, That Makes Me Happy. The Success Part Of It Is All Gravy.

Plays Never Feel Like The Right Thing To Do At The Time.

I Feel Like I Made A Little Bit Of Difference.

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

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.

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.

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.

My Favorite Thing About Acting Is Being Alone And Going Through The Scripts And Working On It And Getting Ideas And Asking Myself Questions, Looking Outside Myself For Them And Researching And Getting To The Bottom Of Something And Being Creative With It As An Actor And How To Express It In A Creative Fashion. That's My Favorite Part. And, The Actual Acting Of It.

To Act Well Isn't An Easy Thing.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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 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.

No One Wants To Be Pretentious About What They Do Or Take It Seriously, Because That Is Just Weird.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Actors Are Responsible To The People We Play. I Don't Label Or Judge. I Just Play Them As Honestly And Expressively And Creatively As I Can.

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

There Is No Pleasure That I Haven't Actually Made Myself Sick On.

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.

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 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.

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.

My Girlfriend's A Costume Designer In The Theater.

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

Yeah, Writers Do Hate Writing.

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

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.

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 Got Sober When I Was 22 Years Old.

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

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.

In Film, You Have To Let Go Sometimes.

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.

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

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

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

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.

In Life, Do You Ever Really Know If You're Missing An Opportunity? No, You Really Don't.

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.

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.'

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.

I've Worked With A Lot Of Characters That Are Unhinged. I've Played Characters That Are Unhinged. That's, Like, My Job.

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.

There's Something In The Very Small Minutia Of Life That Tells Us Something About The Big, Big Picture That We See Every Day All Over The Place, And So I Think The More Specific And Creative And Revelatory You Are In The Micro, The More Powerful The Macro Will Be.

Great Talent Admits Shortcomings.

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

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

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've Never Been On A Cruise.

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

Creating Something Is All About Problem-solving.

Creating Something

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

Sometimes I Have A Great Day Of Filming And Sometimes The Theater Strikes Me Better. It Just Depends.

Have A Great Day

I Had A Father Who Was A Traveling Salesman.

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.

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

Bob Glaudini, The Writer, He's A Wonderfully Talented Man And All His Plays And His Screenplays, They All Have Sense Of Something Bigger, Even Though You're Looking At Something Very Simple.

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

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

To Have That Concentration To Act Well Is Like Lugging Things Up Staircases In Your Brain. I Think That’s A Thing People Don’t Understand. It Is That Exhausting. If You’re Doing It Well, If You’re Concentrating The Way You Need To, If Your Will And Your Concentration And Emotional And Imagination And Emotional Life Are All In Tune, Concentrated And Working Together In That Role, That Is Just Like Lugging Weights Upstairs With Your Head... And I Don’t Think That Should Get Any Easier.

Well, I Think Everyone Struggles With Self-love.

When You Have A Child, As Anyone Knows Who Has Them, That's Basically All You Want To Talk About.

Creating Anything Is Hard.

The Film Is Made In The Editing Room.

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.

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.

I've Had To Make The Transition From Sweeping In For 15 Minutes, Doing My Stuff And Clearing Out, To Carrying A Movie For The Duration - In A Dress.

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.

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

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.

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.

You Have All The Influence You Choose To Have.

I Think Directors Should Be Confident In Their Leadership Capabilities. I Think Directors Should Be Confident In What They Want To Do.

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.

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.

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

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

My Soul Is In Good Shape.

People Used To Be Funny About Approaching Me, But Now They Seem To Think I'm As Sane As Anyone Who's Done What I've Done In Movies Can Be.

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

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

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.

Learning How To Die Is Therefore Learning How To Live.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

[truman Capote] Was Not Only Just Selling His Writing, But He Was Selling Himself As A Person.

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 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.

My Mum Is Incredibly Intelligent.

I Had Insecurities And Fears Like Everybody Does, And I Got Over It. But I Was Interested In The Parts Of Me That Struggled With Those Things.

Insecurity And Fear

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.

Playing Someone

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.

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?

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

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.

Sometimes I Take A Temperature Of Things Just Because Everyone Else Does. Especially When I'm Doing A Play. I Want To Know What People Are Thinking, Positive Or Negative.

I'm Probably More Personal When I'm Acting Than At Any Other Time. More Open, More Direct. Because It Allows Me To Be Something That I Can't Always Feel Comfortable With When I'm Living My Own Life, You Know? Because It's Make-believe.

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 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.

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

My Ideal Weight Is 205, Actually.

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

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

My Mother's A Staunch Feminist, So I Grew Up With Very Strong Feminist Messages. As A Result, I Battled Her In My Teenage Years Because My Image Of Being A Man Was A Deformed One.

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.

I Think I'm Less Anonymous Than I Was.

Something That Could Bring You Wealth And Fame Could Also Be Your End, Your Undoing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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