Quotes from Michael Stuhlbarg

I saw a production of 'Titus Andronicus' at the Royal Shakespeare Company with Brian Cox back in 1987. That sort of rocked my world. It was a remarkable production in its simplicity and its realism and passion.

I did a play back in 2005 called 'The Pillowman,' which Martin McDonagh directed, in which, at the very end of the run, I caught a case of shingles. I had something burst on my forehead, so I actually have a mark on my forehead from that experience. But it's also an internal mark as well.

I often find in doing tragedy, or doing very serious material, that there's a level of anxiety that builds that often leads to laughter in some cases. In between takes, there can often be a lightness.

Most of the people in New York are very often from somewhere else.

I find if you can look in the mirror and see something other than the face you see every day, it can free you up in terms of who you play. Wearing a mask can free you up.

Someone who's asking questions of the clergy, that he doesn't have the answers to, I think that's a universal predicament.

I came to New York to study theater and stayed and was doing exactly what I wanted to do. It's because of that work that some doors eventually opened for me.

There's a lot of noise in the world. And one of the beautiful things about doing theater and film is the absence of that noise or, perhaps, the adding of that noise where it's helpful in telling the story. I'm always trying to get rid of that noise. The more you do it, the better you get.

I was thrown into a community production of 'Bye Bye Birdie' or something when I was a kid. I wanted to just build the sets, but I wasn't allowed to just build the sets unless I auditioned for the play. So I auditioned for the play and was thrown into the chorus. During the course of that I fell in love with it, and I never really turned back.

I think the theater work and the on-camera work feed off each other. My theater work has become more simple, and my on-camera work has become more energized or more spontaneous.

When I try to go with what's happening and embrace that as much as I can, it seems to be a much smoother journey for me.

Film, for me, has been a process of learning on the job.