Quotes from John Lithgow

To my mum, I owe security in a very insecure young life. We lived in about 10 different places because of my father's chequered career, and she always made me feel a sense of consistency and security. I was a well-mothered boy.

When I was 13 years old, I went to visit my aunt and uncle in Washington, D.C., and they just deposited me at the National Gallery. I would go from Rembrandt to Picasso - I remember that experience so vividly.

I'm a con artist in that I'm an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn't.

Grown adults often tell me that they used to sit, as children with their parents, and watch '3rd Rock from the Sun,' and they would all enjoy it for completely different reasons. I think that's part of the magic of the show.

When people are taking something extremely seriously, that's the time to take out the pig's bladder.

'M. Butterfly' is usually the answer to the question, 'What has been your favorite experience?' The reason being, it is an astonishing play.

My sense of myself is that I'm a character actor, and character actors are ready, willing, and able to do anything, to be totally different from themselves. That's my job, to be ready. I'm some kind of first responder.

The essence of comedy, drama, and horror is surprise. I have an uncanny ability to surprise people because they look at my face, and they don't know where I'm going.

The most exciting acting tends to happen in roles you never thought you could play.

Look at the darkest hit musicals - Cabaret, West Side Story, Carousel - they are exuberant experiences. They send you out of the theater filled with music

'Love Is Strange' was just a beautiful experience in so many ways.

My eagerness to please sometimes gets the better of me.

I'm too much of a Libra. I too often see the other person's point of view and capitulate, even though I have strong political convictions. It's just my liability. Maybe I'm too empathetic. That's the actor in me.

One of the problems in our lives is that people from different segments of our society just don't communicate with each other, nor do you ever see entertainment where they communicate with each other and fight with each other.

It's a delightful thing to do, to entertain kids. They're a completely different audience because of their total lack of irony. You're always after a total suspension of disbelief, but the only people you can really achieve it with is children.

Churchill is so particular. He's as different from the rest of the population of Britain as he is from me.

I am in the business of exploring crazy possibilities.

I consider myself a very lucky actor that, approaching 60, I'm still employed and employable.

I am such a coward when it comes to political arguments. I tend to sort of recoil rather than engage.

Take care, be kind, be considerate of other people and other species, and be loving.

My wife is a professor at UCLA in Los Angeles, but otherwise, I'd be right back living on the Upper West Side.

Powerful people are always in charge. You have to acknowledge that and deal with it as a reality. They're not devils. They're not monsters. They're human beings, like us, that have their share of insecurities and fears. You have to contemplate that as you go through life.

We're in the business of using real emotions to bring pretend emotions to life.

We all have our secrets, and we all have our deceptions. Acting, at its best, is all about deceiving people, and this makes it all the more interesting to us.