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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.

-Philip Seymour Hoffman

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You Know The Circus

Philip Seymour Hoffman

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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.

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Spinning Plates

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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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

I Had A Father Who Was A Traveling Salesman.

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

The Film Is Made In The Editing Room.

Learning How To Die Is Therefore Learning How To Live.

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

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

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

I Think I'm Less Anonymous Than I Was.

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.

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.

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

Well, I Think Everyone Struggles With Self-love.

Actors Are Responsible To The People We Play.

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

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

Have A Great Day

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.

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

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 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.

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 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.

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

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

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

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You Have All The Influence You Choose To Have.

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

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My Soul Is In Good Shape.

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.

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

My Girlfriend's A Costume Designer In The Theater.

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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.

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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

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

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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.

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I Try Not To Plan That Too Much.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 Feel Like I Made A Little Bit Of Difference.

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.

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.

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

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.

Yeah, Writers Do Hate Writing.

I Got Sober When I Was 22 Years Old.

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

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've Never Been On A Cruise.

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.'

Great Talent Admits Shortcomings.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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