Quotes By Philip Seymour Hoffman

Sometimes I have a great day of filming and sometimes the theater strikes me better. It just depends.

If you're a human being walking the earth, you're weird, you're strange, you're psychologically challenged.

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.

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.

In film, you have to let go sometimes.

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.

Actors are responsible to the people we play.

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.

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.

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool.

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.

The foibles of my body are pretty much out there in the work I do.

I've never been on a cruise.

I got into plays in high school then I ended up going to college for 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.

There's nothing risky in talking about your personal life. People do it all the time.

You can look at anything as a cult. Churches are cults in their own way.

I know I wasn't as handsome as some other guys, but I was OK with that.

I don't have a specific thing I want anyone to get out of anything I do.

I think directors should be confident in their leadership capabilities. I think directors should be confident in what they want to do.

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've grown to really love musicals, you know?

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.

I think I'm less anonymous than I was.

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.

I've worked with a lot of characters that are unhinged. I've played characters that are unhinged. That's, like, my job.

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.

You have to understand that crew members make movies so they're seeing a lot of actors all the time in their career acting.

My soul is in good shape.