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.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
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 know I wasn't as handsome as some other guys, but I was OK with that.
Creating something is all about problem-solving.
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.
Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love.
I don't want to repeat myself.
I got into plays in high school then I ended up going to college for it.
People actually live with their id exposed. They're not good at concealing what's going on inside.
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.
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've never been on a cruise.
It's important to say that actors can't act alone, it's impossible. What we have to do is support each other.
To be fair to my dad, he is one of the brightest men I've ever met.
Creating anything is hard.
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.
Ultimately what I'll do next is up in the air for me.
I don't have a specific thing I want anyone to get out of anything I do.
In life, do you ever really know if you're missing an opportunity? No, you really don't.
Why you do something is always kind of a mystery to me.
One person's religion is another person's cult.
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.
My soul is in good shape.
Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.
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.
My girlfriend's a costume designer in the theater.
No one wants to be pretentious about what they do or take it seriously, because that is just weird.
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.
Yeah, writers do hate writing.
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.
The foibles of my body are pretty much out there in the work I do.
I've worked with a lot of characters that are unhinged. I've played characters that are unhinged. That's, like, my job.
Good work is the only thing that would make me feel jealous or envious.
There's nothing risky in talking about your personal life. People do it all the time.
I do understand what it is to not want to commit to someone, knowing that might bring pain or commit to a life that has to do with being responsible to people other than myself. These things, I think, are normal things.
Films are always a fiction, not documentary. Even a documentary is a kind of fiction.
My ideal weight is 205, actually.
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.
It's really hard to watch things and then not think about anything afterwards.
I think I'm less anonymous than I was.
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.
If I don't feel like I'm doing the job well, and I don't know how to get there, or I'm too scared, or whatever, I'm not a happy guy and I'm not pleasant. I'm not pleasant to be around.
The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed... They're all inside me somewhere.
In a film there a lot of people scheduling, you know.
The idea that you have a vision of what you're supposed to be, or going to be, or where your kids are going to be - and that that doesn't work out - is always going to be something that's going to affect people and move people.
I had a father who was a traveling salesman.
If you're a human being walking the earth, you're weird, you're strange, you're psychologically challenged.
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.
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.
People aren't going to throw the kind of money at certain people that they used to.
