Quotes By William H. Macy

Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.

I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.

If I like the story and it's well written, and it's a character I want to play and they'll pay me, then I decide to do it.

I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.

We must admit that it is quite common that people do have affairs with their leading ladies and men.

When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.

A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife.

I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.

We thought sex was free. Sex is not free. There's a price to be paid emotionally, physically, even legally. Sex isn't a casual thing. It's a huge thing.

I'll tell you this about the Oscars - they're real.

Oh yeah, that's the Holy Grail, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp, he's the real deal, isn't he? He doesn't get the girl, and he doesn't care.

When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.

The only people who do plays in LA are people who can't get jobs in TV shows.

The bar raises as you go.

I'm sure I have a process, but it mostly takes place in my dreams.

Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.

Everyone hooks up with George Clooney. He's a genuinely cool guy. He's using his powers for good.

Ninety percent of the preparation we do as actors is just jive. It doesn't do anything.

Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.

I'm not against watching myself, but I miss a lot of it. I've got two little kids who we don't let watch TV.

The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night.

That red carpet has to be felt to be believed.

We all want to be 20 again and have that first sense of love.

I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.

I'm really proud of the writing on Door to Door, and I think that's the Emmy that meant the most - the writing.

It started with the Godfather, this operatic violence. I don't know.

When Fargo came out, I hired a publicist for the first time in my life. I thought, if ever I was going to make it, that was then.

I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.

I think I've been in situations where they looked at me and just see some rich white guy - they don't see me at all.

Directors work 10 times harder than anyone else. Get paid a quarter.