Latest Patton Oswalt Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• MySpace is somehow more welcoming than Facebook. And Twittering, I just... Ugh. I like having radio silence. I think radio silence is an important part of any public figure's day. We haven't seen it yet, but there's going to be a generation that comes up where the new trend will be complete anonymity. It'll be cool to have never posted anything online, commented, opened a webpage or a MySpace. I think everyone in the future is going to be allowed to be obscure for 15 minutes. You'll have 15 minutes where no one is watching you, and then you'll be shoved back onto your reality show.

  Patton Oswalt

  Reality, Thinking, Silence

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Nowadays - and I don't want to make some dopey cultural statement here - everyone can be, just by existing in society, because we all have a ship that we follow. Even if it's other people, like on MySpace pages, we're just as collective of enthusiasts now. That seems to be the world we're in.

  Patton Oswalt

  People, World

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I really do love doing stand-up, and I don't see why it should affect the acting. And I just want more interesting jobs. I just want to keep doing stuff that's different, rather than saying, "Okay, I've become known for this, and I'll just do this from now on." If I feel like I've done this one thing, I never want to do it again. I want to do something totally different.

  Patton Oswalt

  Interesting, Acting, Different

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I'm grateful that I had that uphill battle for 10 years of going onstage and having nobody know who I was, because you have to win them over. I have a lot of friends who were stand-ups, and they just stopped after a while, because they didn't like that battle. And then they would get on a sitcom and get visible and get back into it, because the audience was just way easier on them. That's why they're okay stand-ups, but they're never going to be great, because they don't have that presence. They never built those muscles up.

  Patton Oswalt

  Grateful, Winning, Battle

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I love doing movies, but right now, television is the way Hollywood was in the late '60s and early '70s. The dream era I would have loved to have been part of in Hollywood then is happening right now, but it's happening on television, with these big complicated story arcs and real character-driven shows and sheer ambiguity left and right.

  Patton Oswalt

  Dream, Real, Complicated

  Source: film.avclub.com

• What I'm realizing as I get older is that a movie's mainstream success is just as unpredictable as a movie's cult success. Plenty of movies that are truly odd and deserve cults, don't have cults. It's just as much of a crapshoot to be a cult hit as it is to be a mainstream success. Isn't that weird?

  Patton Oswalt

  Realizing, Odd, Unpredictable

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Just think of yourself as starting from zero every time. That's what I do with every new role. I'm at zero, and I'm going to do the work.

  Patton Oswalt

  Thinking, Think Of You

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I would always rather shoot for something unique and fail than do a script because I feel like they're hitting all the right mainstream beats.

  Patton Oswalt

  Unique, Failing

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Growing up there are always those kids who are only happy when they are making someone else upset. That is unfortunately just how some people are. Some people are just born with bad wiring.

  Patton Oswalt

  Growing Up, Kids, People

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I update my MySpace every day, I update my Facebook fan page, but that's about the extent of it. I don't want to get into extended conversations with people on MySpace, because there are friends I have extended conversations with every day. I'm on the phone every day. There's like five people I just call and yak with every single day. And that to me is my Internet. You can replace the Internet with five really smart friends.

  Patton Oswalt

  Smart, Phones, People

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I haven't sworn off Facebook. I'm on Facebook. There's a fan page on Facebook that I will update, but I'm on there myself under a pseudonym, because there were a lot of people able to private-message me on Facebook, and it was getting really weird. And then with MySpace, I just don't read messages. I delete everything, and I just post updates every now and then.

  Patton Oswalt

  People, Able, Updates

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I'm such a bookworm, and I'm such a people-watcher. It took the Internet a while to catch on in Ireland, because the culture there is, you go to the pub and talk to people there, and that's how you get the news and all the gossip. You just do it face to face. And culturally, you just couldn't understand.

  Patton Oswalt

  People, Gossip, Faces

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• What I was trying to say in that bit, without saying it out loud, is that there were things - you're right, everything is very politicized these days, literally down to what kind of coffee you drink - that I used to fight with people about. And by the way, not just people like Republicans and Christians, but liberal friends of mine and very radical left-wing types, and alternative, indie types.

  Patton Oswalt

  Christian, Coffee, Fighting

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• Somebody is going to find a way digitally that is just as innovative. In the end, the tools can change, but there is always someone who can think of something cool to do.

  Patton Oswalt

  Thinking, Tools, Way

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I have a lot of friends who were stand-ups, and they just stopped after a while, because they didn't like that battle, or they just couldn't do it. And then they would get on a sitcom and get visible and get back into it, because the audience was just way easier on them. But they lost those crucial years of learning to turn any audience into your audience.

  Patton Oswalt

  Years, Battle, Way

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I'm grateful that I had that uphill battle for 10 years of going onstage and having nobody know who I was, because you have to win them over.

  Patton Oswalt

  Grateful, Winning, Years

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• But for the most part, for the majority of a stand-up audience, you better have new stuff they've not heard. And if you put an album out, just consider that material gone. At least that's how I see it.

  Patton Oswalt

  Majority, Albums, Gone

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• With a comedian, it's the opposite. You put that album out, and they've heard it. If they're coming out to see you, you'd better be doing new stuff. There's always a tiny part of the audience that want to hear certain bits of yours, or they've brought friends to see you, and they've told them about some of your bits. Then maybe you should do them.

  Patton Oswalt

  Opposites, Comedian, Stuff

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• The process is to me is going onstage night after night after night after night until I get a new hour. And then once that hour is solidified and recorded, I move on.

  Patton Oswalt

  Moving, Night, Hours

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• You saw a lot of guys, especially in the early '90s, whose acts were a pitch for a sitcom. A lot of them were very funny, but there's nothing worse than watching comedians or musicians who are up there and are doing something they're not interested in.

  Patton Oswalt

  Guy, Comedian, Musician

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I'm glad that that era of stand-up is over, because I think it adversely affected a lot of people who could have been really, really great comedians. Because they unconsciously or subconsciously stifled their wild impulses, and were thinking about the five clean minutes for The Tonight Show, or the 20-minute sitcom pitch as a stand-up act.

  Patton Oswalt

  Thinking, People, Comedian

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I'm going to continue to try to strike a balance, because I really, really do love doing stand-up, and I don't see why it should affect the acting. And again, I'm not going, "I've got to become a dramatic actor now." I just want more interesting jobs. I just want to keep doing stuff that's different.

  Patton Oswalt

  Jobs, Interesting, Balance

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• There's something kind of beautiful about that pure love of things. Like, "I'll show that I love the thing I love by hating everything else."

  Patton Oswalt

  Beautiful, Hate, Things I Love

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• I like confounding expectations. I can expand what it is I am able to do, and hopefully get to do more weird, interesting projects like this. There's nothing wrong with doing comedies, and I'm not against comedies, either, but I always want to do stuff that keeps me off my guard and gets me out of my comfort zone. And how the audience perceives that... It's out of my hands. And I don't get that frustrated by it, because I'm on to the next thing at that point.

  Patton Oswalt

  Hands, Interesting, Expectations

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.

• Even if it's other people, like on MySpace pages, we're just as collective of enthusiasts now. That seems to be the world we're in.

  Patton Oswalt

  People, World, Pages

  Interview with Scott Tobias, film.avclub.com. August 26, 2009.