Quotes from Michael Stuhlbarg

With television, sometimes the writing is continuous and happening at every moment, and you'll get new pages at the last moment. We have to incorporate that into what it is that we're doing.

I miss California... I love driving.

My mom and my dad are ebullient people, and I think I carry that with me.

I don't see a difference between the idea of what an actor does and what someone supposes a character actor is, really.

I love a sense of humor, I love intelligence, I love specificity, I love surprises. I'm inspired to get out of bed in the morning and fill my day with good things.

Things never go the way you expect them to. That's both the joy and frustration in life. I'm finding as I get older that I don't mind, though. It's the surprises that tickle me the most, the things you don't see coming.

I just feel like I am a really lucky guy who these talented directors have found places for me. I feel honored and blessed.

Had I pursued a film career in Los Angeles, I'm not sure I would have had the fortune that I've had.

Scorsese is a fan of improv and is always pushing actors to think up something that would make the scene more fun. He loves any idea that helps the scene be alive.

I had been acting since I was a kid. I had done 35 plays in New York before 'Serious Man,' but you never know what putting one foot in front of the other is going to do.

I think it's always a challenge to adapt a beautiful literary work into a fresh and alive film.

I'm glad to have work.

I was raised in a reform synagogue. I think we all bring with us a sense of when hard things happen to us, we find ourselves asking questions of why are these things happening to me at this time in my life. I think in that sense, there's a certain resonance that I carry. It's more of a spiritual resonance as opposed to particularly of Judaism.

I'm just grateful for the opportunities that have come my way.

I've done a lot of theater work that has been quite diverse. I feel very fortunate to have had many different people think of me in many different ways. So, as an actor that's all you - all I want is diversity. So far in film and television work I have done has not been as diverse, and I hope it grows to be.

I love throwing myself into people who actually lived. It gives me a lot to research and a lot to know.

I love Seth Rogen's line in which he talks about how you can be both a genius and decent at the same time.

I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was one of those kids who sat around and drew in my room all the time.

It's nice to be able to challenge myself by playing real people. But at the same time it utilizes a different part of the brain to just invent new things.

With each job that you're given an opportunity to do, you're asked to use new parts of yourself and to figure the play out with other tools that you perhaps didn't use with the last show.

I find that it's best to take one step at a time and cross each bridge as they come to you.

I put my best foot forward to make the best impression I could have, and it's been serving me well ever since.

When I heard I'd be working with Scorsese, I signed up immediately.

Doing film and television demands a kind of simplicity. If you think something differently, the camera will pick it up.