Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I like being busy.
I don't like to repeat myself.
Eric Stoltz was a very good actor.
I'm somewhat of a solitary person.
In a way, theatre is still my first love.
I enjoy doing complicated or peculiar people.
Some people have quick retention. I'm not one of those.
I ventured into a world of sitcom, and I have no regrets. I loved it.
In New York theater, you always talk about wanting a great ensemble of actors.
I had an attitude about some work, like television sitcoms. It was selling your soul.
Time travel is a fantasy we all have. The 'Back to the Future' series really exploits that wish.
I got a few speeding tickets when I was young, but I'm a little more like the turtle than the hare.
I sense from people that they get frustrated with me for not being out and about. But I guess I'm a shy boy.
The time and preparation before a play is something I really value, and it's something I learned in New York.
I grew up on Charles Addams' cartoons, particularly 'The Addams Family,' and Uncle Fester was always one of my favorites.
As long as I can keep remembering the lines and getting to the locations, I want to keep working as long as I can. I love it.
I turned down a film that was offered to me in the very early '80s, a Scorsese film. That probably wasn't a good career move.
We live in an era now where every episode is reviewed 80 different times on the Internet by periodicals you've never even heard of.
There's something overwhelming about being in raw nature. It's got an aura about it is that is really kind of majestic and spiritual.
I get asked a lot what the key is to creating a hit show, and I have a standard answer: Do everything right, and then get lucky 10 ways.
I feel that I have been very fortunate and had the opportunity to play some wonderful roles and movies and worked with some great talent.
I don't know if there are too many other trilogies with stories that have continued to captivate audiences like 'Back to the Future' has.
A sign that negotiations were handled well on both sides is that everybody probably feels a little bit like they didn't get what they wanted.
There were a couple times with close-ups where I tended to overact. I would use more of my face than I needed to. I learned how to be more subtle.
The seas are rising, and millions of people are going to be affected by that - and already are. We have to make sure there's enough food, water, and air.
The film I had the most fun in was 'Back to the Future Part III.' It had horseback riding, and all that work, all that training, was quite an experience.
'Cuckoo's Nest' came along, and I was cast, and that was great, but it was my first film, so I felt like I was kind of walking around on the set as Walk-On A.
I'm not too picky. I'm not waiting, sitting around for the ideal and perfect role. I like to work, so I try to make the best of whatever opportunity comes up.
I loved doing Judge Doom in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.' I'm constantly running into people who saw that movie when they were kids, and it absolutely horrified them.
'Star Trek' came along fairly early. And I don't know what they saw in me that said Captain Kruge, because I hadn't done anything remotely like that, but it worked out.
I meet people on the street who literally chose their careers because they saw 'Back to the Future' and decided they wanted to be scientists or astronomers or engineers.
I started in theatre when I was 13 or 14 years old and did a lot of theatre until my early thirties. Off-Broadway stuff - off-off-off-off-Broadway stuff - and I do love it.
Whether it's a very dramatic part or a comical role, I feel I need to create the same thing: a full-fledged, three-dimensional character that the audience can identify with.
I'll run into somebody, and of all the movies I've done, they may say something about 'Back to the Future' or whatever, but then they make reference to 'Clue' very favorably.
When I go to Comic-Cons and people line up for autographs, so many people have a story about how they are moved, how they get tearful about what 'Back To The Future' meant to them.
The outburst of sexual freedom in the '60s was bound to happen because the '50s were so oppressing. You had to live that way; women had to be like this - it was all locked into a false reality.
I tend to avoid things like award shows and panels and interviews, not remotely because I feel I'm above them or wish to cultivate the image of the intriguing recluse. I'm just not very good at them.
I've always been fascinated by real scientists - Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and so many others - how they've come up with solutions to very complicated problems that nobody else can seem to figure out.
I was a slow starter. I didn't really make any dazzling impressions. But I don't really regret that because I learned a lot along the way. I always kept busy - I found my way my way, and I'm happy about it.
I grew up near New York, and there were a lot of summer stock theaters in the area. I started an apprenticing with some of the theaters. Not really acting in them - I did everything else: everything but act.
I love watching film. I love watching stories. I watch the people in them... Even, sometimes, films that nobody else can watch - 'How could you look at that? It's lousy' - I can look at it and be totally into it.
When I come onto a show where I haven't met any actors, I try to zero in on the script and what's expected of the character I'm going to play and hopefully keep my focus on that, and friendships develop from that.
I didn't know where my career was going to go. Somehow, people sensed that I have certain talents and cast me in these bizarre, off-beat roles, which I have no regret about. I've enjoyed playing every one of them.
Every role I get is always a challenge. I can read a script and say, 'Oh, I can do that!' and then when I start working on it, I suddenly realize that I had no idea what I was getting into. Then I have to really work hard!
Uncle Fester always intrigued me. I certainly always enjoyed his kind of humor. He's just full of mischief in a kind of macabre way. I don't see anything twisted about it. It's sort of ridiculous and wacky. It's sort of fun.
I'm often asked, 'What was, for you, your greatest film experience?' And it always comes back to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' aside from being a film that really handled subject matter in such a brilliant, brilliant way.
On 'Frasier,' a network executive once suggested that one week we have John Lithgow play Frasier and Kelsey Grammar play Lithgow's role on '3rd Rock From the Sun;' I've been deeply afraid of the idea of a crossover ever since.
We were all such odd characters, even though we were a really functional family, in a way, as eccentric and crazy as we were. And it was such a wonderful feeling amongst us of being a family almost. We were 'The Addams Family!'
'Cuckoo's Nest' was my first film, and I had wanted to do film for some time, but somehow I had not clicked. I would go in for interviews or readings, and I never had the sense that I was anywhere near what they were looking for.
A picador is the guy in a bullfight who helps make sure the matador doesn't get killed by distracting the bull. That's what TV writing is. You're just distracting the bull long enough to stick around for the next set of commercials.