Famous Quotes & Sayings

Steve Buscemi

Character actors just pile up the credits because you work on a movie for like a few days. It's not like I'm the lead in everything I do - far from it. I'm not spending three or four months on a picture; I'm spending three or four weeks. Sometimes three or four days.

Steve Carell

You never saw Peter Sellers the actor trying to make you laugh. All he was doing was the character. What I'm saying is that I don't think you should know you're in a movie. I don't like it when actors are winking at the audience and saying, 'Right, isn't this funny? Are you with me?'

Steve Carell

[And on going from character to leading actor] I don't approach anything differently; I just approach it as a character. I'm always astounded at the fact that I've ever played a leading character in anything [Laughs]. And my wife concurs with that, frankly. She always thought I would be, at best, the wacky neighbor on a sitcom, so this is all just a surprise and a joy.

Steve Carell

I've always enjoyed watching characters that aren't aware that they're doing anything funny. And I think that inherently makes them funnier.

Steve Carell

It's interesting when you're trying to create a character in animation. It's really a communal effort.

Steve Carell

Well, on a personal level, I would never want to take on a character who didn't have some redeemable qualities. Even the worst of people, such as Michael Scott in The Office [Carell's character in the US version of the Ricky Gervais sitcom], have some decent human qualities that you can latch onto.

Stephen Hopkins

I directed 24's pilot. I felt we should follow the characters around as if we were a documentary crew, using available light, hand-held cameras, split screens, sound that isn't always what it should be, to suit the reality of the premise.

Stephen King

The idea for a novel is like a little tiny fire in a dark night. And, one by one, the characters come and stand around it and warm their hands.

Stephen King

The writer's original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader's.

Stephen Hawking

People think I'm a Simpsons character.

Stellan Skarsgard

Actors are different. Some actors play themselves very successfully, but I come from the theater. Having done Shakespeare, we sometimes did three or four characters in the same play.

Stendhal

For the future, I shall rely only upon those elements of my character which I have tested. Who would ever have said that I should find pleasure in shedding tears? That I should love the man who proves to me that I am nothing more than a fool?

Stendhal

A woman of generous character will sacrifice her life a thousand times over for her lover, but will break with him for ever over a question of pride.

Stendhal

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

When no wind blows, even the weathervane has character.

Spike Jonze

You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally.

Spike Jonze

I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible.

Spike Lee

I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces.

Spike Lee

There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.

Spike Lee

I collect names for characters. Names are valuable; they can be your first source of insight into a character.

Spike Lee

As a writer I want everybody to get a chance to voice their opinions. If each character thinks that they're telling the truth, then it's valid. Then at the end of the film, I leave it up to the audience to decide who did the right thing.

Virtue herself is her own fairest reward.

Sigourney Weaver

I'd be more interested in doing a smaller, character driven thing, rather than another action picture.

Shirley Henderson

I never get the tall, blonde, glamorous roles because I'm not tall, blonde and glamorous. I'm more the wee, disturbing characters because of the way I look or sound.

Shirley Hazzard

Since the moment of the United Nations' inception, untold energies have been expended by governments not only toward the exclusion of persons of principle and distinction from the organization's leading positions, but toward the installation of men whose character and affiliations would as far as possible preclude any serious challenge to governmental sovereignty.

Shirley MacLaine

I simply channeled a character, this time I allowed the character to inhabit me.

Shemar Moore

For me to bring a character to life, you've got to be able to find your own truth.

Shemar Moore

I look at leading men because that's ultimately what I'm aspiring to do. But I also look at character actors and people that I'm just in awe by, just because I can relate to it.

Shawn Hatosy

I was curious. Here was a character where I just didn't know how they were going to write him into 13 episodes without it being one note. My fear was that I didn't want to join something where I was just going to be this prop and this mustache twirling character.

Shawn Ashmore

I think it is important that you care about the characters, and you are not just waiting for the next action sequence but have a vested interested in what happens to them.

Shawn Ashmore

The genre of fantasy is about magic and occult characters.

Shawn Ashmore

Playing a character who's dealing not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship is easy to associate with, because I feel that everyone has been through it.

Shailene Woodley

I think the best way to become a character is by osmosis as opposed to thinking directly about stuff. The more material that you have and understand and have a going in, then the more complex your character and the understanding of your character will be.