Quotes from Philip Seymour Hoffman

Actors are responsible to the people we play.

In a film there a lot of people scheduling, you know.

I do understand what it is to not want to commit to someone, knowing that might bring pain or commit to a life that has to do with being responsible to people other than myself. These things, I think, are normal things.

When you become a parent, you look at your parents differently. You look at being a child differently. It's an awakening, a revelation that you have.

I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they're beautiful and famous and rich. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'd be dead.'

It's important to say that actors can't act alone, it's impossible. What we have to do is support each other.

People used to be funny about approaching me, but now they seem to think I'm as sane as anyone who's done what I've done in movies can be.

I work constantly but I work at a lot of different things. You know, I run a theater company in New York, I direct plays, act in plays, in movies, so I try to keep it eclectic.

You have to understand that crew members make movies so they're seeing a lot of actors all the time in their career acting.

One person's religion is another person's cult.

Directing is a really kind of amazing thing, because you're helping others and, in the middle of that, you have to worry about yourself.

I like so many different kinds of music just because all I did was listen to the radio as a kid.

To be fair to my dad, he is one of the brightest men I've ever met.

People aren't going to throw the kind of money at certain people that they used to.

There are characters in movies who I call 'film characters.' They don't exist in real life. They exist to play out a scenario. They can be in fantastic films, but they are not real characters what happens to them is not lifelike.

Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.

I have a fine level of recognition in the business and among the acting community now, so I consider myself one of the lucky ones. If I didn't think that, there would be something wrong with me. I'm grateful and thankful for what I've got.

Film's hard when you don't have any relationship with the director at all and you just show up. Then you really are just a gun for hire.

I think directors should be confident in their leadership capabilities. I think directors should be confident in what they want to do.

If you're a human being walking the earth, you're weird, you're strange, you're psychologically challenged.

The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed... They're all inside me somewhere.

When people don't know who you are, they're seeing your work for the first time. But if they've seen a lot, getting certain things across is a more difficult.

Bob Glaudini, the writer, he's a wonderfully talented man and all his plays and his screenplays, they all have sense of something bigger, even though you're looking at something very simple.

To be loved, I think, is the thing that gets you up in the morning.