Latest John Lithgow Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I can't get used to the fact that I'm 68 years old. I still feel like a youngster. I am playing a part even older than 68 - 71 years old. It's kind of startling to see myself in a movie and realize, "Yup. That's exactly what I look like."

  John Lithgow

  Kind, Realizing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• I'm as flighty as anybody. You put a lot out there. I've been through the process a lot. When I play a major role, it's my instinct to create a nice atmosphere. People in the major roles dominate the tone of an entire film. To my mind, it's much easier to work creatively when everyone's friendly.

  John Lithgow

  Nice, People, Atmosphere

  Source: movieweb.com

• I subscribe to the great George G. Scott quote, "All actors are in trouble. Directors who don't help are a pain in the ass". We all need help from directors. We are all equally insecure.

  John Lithgow

  Pain, Insecure, Helping

  Source: movieweb.com

• If we are ever going to save this society and the world, there has got to be a way for us to work together. That may be more than we can ever hope to achieve, just because of human nature.

  John Lithgow

  Working Together, World, Human Nature

  Source: movieweb.com

• The problem is that people are pulling farther apart, rather than make an effort to get back together. There have been remarkable moments that united this country. It makes everyone feel relieved. Then because of economic stress, political shifts, we get wrenched apart again. I think it's cyclical. I am an optimist by nature. There are moments, the period after 9/11, the way we responded. The election of Barack Obama. There are moments where the country felt good about being American. I'm waiting for that to happen again.

  John Lithgow

  Country, Stress, Thinking

  Source: movieweb.com

• Any character you play, you're on his side. You do have the third eye that looks at what an appalling creature he is, but you have to look at what's good about him.

  John Lithgow

  Character, Eye

  Source: movieweb.com

• It's nice when you've done enough movies that you can do your own anthology.

  John Lithgow

  Nice, Done, Enough

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I'm always being asked to play roles or characters that I don't really resemble.

  John Lithgow

  Character, Play, Roles

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Anyone who hears enough laughter and applause at a young age will become an actor, whether they intend to or not.

  John Lithgow

  Laughter, Age, Actors

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I went to Harvard and immediately fell into the theater gang, and I was already an experienced actor, so you go with the flow! I've already used the phrase "campus star."

  John Lithgow

  Stars, Phrases, Actors

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I was very interested in being a painter. I had facility, I had talent, and I loved painting and printmaking, and I was quite serious about it.

  John Lithgow

  Serious, Painting, Talent

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I grew up in a theater family. My father was a regional theater classical repertory producer. He created Shakespeare festivals. He produced all of Shakespeare's plays, mostly in Shakespeare festivals in Ohio. One of them, the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, is still going. So I grew up not wanting to be an actor, not wanting to go into the family business.

  John Lithgow

  Father, Lakes, Ohio

  Source: www.avclub.com

• You have to overcome enormous self-consciousness, but nudity is about the strongest thing you can do in an acting performance. It's the most unsettling or the most comic or the most sexual.

  John Lithgow

  Self, Acting, Overcoming

  "John Lithgow's Killer Role". Interview with Claire Martin, www.thedailybeast.com. December 10, 2009.

• I look for every opportunity to mix comedy and horror and tragedy. I love catching audiences off-guard.

  John Lithgow

  Opportunity, Tragedy, Looks

  "John Lithgow's Killer Role". Interview with Claire Martin, www.thedailybeast.com. December 10, 2009.

• I don't hesitate to do nudity as an actor if it's done well.

  John Lithgow

  Actors, Done, Nudity

  "John Lithgow's Killer Role". Interview with Claire Martin, www.thedailybeast.com. December 10, 2009.

• I certainly had my years as an out of work actor but I was married with a baby. My wife was supporting us.

  John Lithgow

  Baby, Years, Wife

  "John Lithgow on Process, His Past and Playing an Artist in Love Is Strange". Interview with Meredith Alloway, blogs.indiewire.com. July 17, 2014.

• I was married very young. I lived a very middle class life. I was married at age 21, divorced at 31. I didn't sleep on people's couches.

  John Lithgow

  Sleep, Class, People

  "John Lithgow on Process, His Past and Playing an Artist in Love Is Strange". Interview with Meredith Alloway, blogs.indiewire.com. July 17, 2014.

• I went to Princeton High School, when I was very serious about being an artist. I was in a theatre family but I didn't want to become an actor.

  John Lithgow

  School, Artist, Theatre

  "John Lithgow on Process, His Past and Playing an Artist in Love Is Strange". Interview with Meredith Alloway, blogs.indiewire.com. July 17, 2014.

• I really prize and love great painting. It's so out of date now. It's slightly come back in.

  John Lithgow

  And Love, Painting, Prize

  "John Lithgow on Process, His Past and Playing an Artist in Love Is Strange". Interview with Meredith Alloway, blogs.indiewire.com. July 17, 2014.

• I always tell that to young people - go to college, do theater, work with an audience. Don't try to learn how to act in front of millions and millions of people. Don't make that your first ambition, to be on a sitcom or get into the movies. Learn who you are as an actor, and the best way to do that is to do it in front of an audience.

  John Lithgow

  Ambition, College, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I learned the most about myself, and you ask what I learned? Well, I learned my strengths and my weaknesses, and it's far more important to learn about your weaknesses than your strengths.

  John Lithgow

  Important, Weakness, Wells

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I got a wonderful college education. I went to Harvard. In those four years I accumulated a lot of knowledge but I also created a kind of habit of learning that has stayed with me my whole life.

  John Lithgow

  College, Years, Four

  Source: www.pbs.org

• One of the things that gives me a lot of pleasure about both the solo show and the book is that it tells people about my dad. He really was an important man. He was a kind of pioneer of regional theater. He was the first American producer to ever produce all of Shakespeare plays.

  John Lithgow

  Dad, Book, Men

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I think there are all sorts of ways of turning into an actor, and there are a vast variety of different actors. You know, you interview plenty of actors and you know they come at it from a different direction and acting means different things to a lot of people.

  John Lithgow

  Mean, Thinking, People

  Source: www.pbs.org

• It's my theory that if you hear enough applause and laughter at a young enough age, you're doomed

  John Lithgow

  Laughter, Age, Enough

  Source: www.pbs.org