Latest John Malkovich Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I like to have fun at work. It's okay if I don't. I've had that a few times. But generally, I'm someone who has a lot of fun at work, because I like my job. I think it's a fantastic job, at least that part of it is a fantastic job. And I like to have fun, and I personally feel that whether you're talking about the cast or the crew or the director or any combination thereof, that when people feel involved and comfortable and they feel like their work is being supported, that's the best environment to do good work.

  John Malkovich

  Fun, Thinking, People

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Films take too long. There's too much BS, too much nonsense. If I want to do a play, I just call the theater, whether it's here, or in Paris or Mexico or Spain or London or whatever, and say, "I want to do this, are you interested?" They'll answer the next day. With a movie, it's all, "Oh, I see this film as blah blah blah." They don't know what you're talking about, they don't care.

  John Malkovich

  Long, Care, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

• If I hear a film clip, or I happen to see some image from a film - you go to a film festival, and they show some clip of the movies you've been in, most of the time I sit there and go, "Oh God, I should have... should have... that was terrible." But I think that's a natural part of this work, because really, your work is never over. Of course I can leave it alone and walk off the set and never think about it again when it's done. But your work is really ongoing all the time.

  John Malkovich

  Thinking, Done, Film

  Source: film.avclub.com

• I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it. And it's pretty irritating to get a movie on. So to complicate it by having more irritation as a director, I don't really need it. And because I direct a great deal still, but in the theater, I kind of get that anyway. Which is not at all to say I would never do it again, or it would never happen again.

  John Malkovich

  Kind, Irritating, Direct

  Source: film.avclub.com

• Much of what you do as an actor - it's who's around you, what's the environment, where do you fit into this thing. That's really work that's impossible to do on your own, at least for me. I find it hard to pre-plan every element of everything I do. It's not my thing.

  John Malkovich

  Impossible, Environment, Fit

  Source: film.avclub.com

• What you really need to build a character is exactly what you don't have in the movies - time. You know, movies are like a line drawing. You have to make very quick decisions, which are, in the end instinctive. Or you make a decision to say "Well, maybe I can do that, because... Oh, that could be irritating after a while, or distracting, etc. etc." Some of it is a matter of time, always.

  John Malkovich

  Character, Decision, Irritating

  Source: film.avclub.com

• The media can make anything true or untrue. So if you do 80 films and you play a bad guy ten times, then you're a bad guy, and then the media repeats that.

  John Malkovich

  Media, Play, Guy

  Source: www.timeout.com

• To a certain extent in Hollywood you're a product, and your product is whatever sells the most, and whatever sells the most is whatever the public likes to see you do - if anything.

  John Malkovich

  Hollywood, Likes, Certain

  Source: www.timeout.com

• The theater is so disappointing, really, that it's hard to go again and again. It's just too heartbreaking. I'd rather watch football or play a game or read.

  John Malkovich

  Football, Games, Play

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• For a while I wanted to be a professional baseball pitcher, and then I wanted to be a musician and then sometimes I think I'd like to start a store for gift-wrapping Christmas presents... But I feel I could do most things I set my mind to, except mechanical things, I'm not very good at that.

  John Malkovich

  Baseball, Thinking, Mind

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• I never wanted to be with someone who just hung around the house.

  John Malkovich

  House, Wanted, Hung

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• All you have is the writer's imagination. You have a very limited time to take this imaginary person and bring the details of their life, as you perceive them, to life. You attempt to do to that as fully and as vibrantly as you can. It's depressing to read how much you've failed. And it's not even particularly instructive or necessary to read how you succeeded because in the end don't you have to judge that?

  John Malkovich

  Depressing, Imagination, Judging

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• Reviews are destructive by their very nature.

  John Malkovich

  Reviews, Destructive

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• I don't really have a comprehension of being a public figure.

  John Malkovich

  Figures, Comprehension, Public Figures

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

• It's a little bit hard to have personal things subject to public scrutiny, and it's a pressure that other people aren't under, but then they're under a lot of pressures that we're not under.

  John Malkovich

  People, Littles, Pressure

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• There are many, many benefits to being known for whatever it is you do. To deny that would be sort of asinine and vulgar.

  John Malkovich

  Would Be, Benefits, Deny

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• One doesn't know if one had a happy childhood or not. I don't really know what it means.

  John Malkovich

  Mean, Childhood, Knows

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• I've always been an avid reader. Everyone in my family read a lot. Considering we were from a little town, we were pretty literate.

  John Malkovich

  Avid, Littles, Towns

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• My father could be very distancing. My clearest memory is of him squatting, watering plants for hours and hours at a time, completely silent. He was very self-contained; my mother was more outgoing and chatty and social. I'm certainly more like her.

  John Malkovich

  Mother, Memories, Father

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• I think probably when I was little, after my brother turned on me, I just had to play by myself or with myself. I've always done that. I think either it's some kind of weirdly competitive streak or it takes my mind off whatever's bothering me.

  John Malkovich

  Brother, Thinking, Play

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• The one natural gift I have is easy access. That's the only natural I gift I have at all. You have to have that, the third eye.

  John Malkovich

  Eye, Natural Gifts, Easy

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• There's no worse feeling in the world than realizing the play you've directed doesn't work.

  John Malkovich

  Play, Feelings, World

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• With acting it's your neck up there in the end. And if you think the director can't help you it's one thing. But if you feel they're reining you in when they need to be giving you some rope, or vice versa, then I just don't tolerate that.

  John Malkovich

  Thinking, Giving, Acting

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• When I have failed as an actor I've always thought it was my fault. But when I direct something, I wouldn't want the actors to think it was their fault.

  John Malkovich

  Thinking, Actors, Want

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.

• I don't have a great intellect, and I can't compete with people who do. I feel certain things. And all I know, and all I can do, is what I feel.

  John Malkovich

  People, Certain, Intellect

  "New Again: John Malkovich". Interview with Becky Johnston, www.interviewmagazine.com. December 10, 2015.