Quotes from Paul Rudd

As a kid, I know that most of my parents' friends were because my mom made friends with them, and my dad went along. I know a lot of dads who do that. I think it just starts to happen with guys. In the case of my father, he was probably just too busy reading books about Titanic.

I hated 'Top Gun.'

We all have different sides of our personalities, so I'd love to play some more different parts too.

I was always in new schools and had British parents, which was not the norm, and I think there was also... I'm not particularly religious, but I was born Jewish, and I always felt like the outsider because I wasn't Christian or Catholic.

I think Ellen DeGeneres is just hysterical.

I would say, up until 'Anchorman,' I wasn't any kind of household name or anything, but I wasn't necessarily identified as much with being a comedian.

I think that I identify with my role in pretty much everything I have tried to do. I try to find something that I can understand about each character's behavior.

Early on, I decided I would see if I could make a career work on my own terms.

Sometimes you read a script, and it's like, 'You'll improv, and this is just a blueprint of what the scene could be,' and that's never a good sign. And it's never encouraging as an actor to take that on, really.

Growing up, if I had been given any advice - bad or good - I probably wouldn't have been able to act on it regardless. I wasn't shy, but I'd get nervous. I got a little more confident later in high school when I realized I could get girls to pay attention to me by making them laugh.

I used to ask my mom to try and shave my head on the sides to give me a receding hairline because Adam Ant had one.

My sister was born a couple years after I was, and I realized that I wasn't getting enough attention, as much attention as I used to before she showed up, and then I learned pretty early on that if I could do a silly dance or make grown-ups laugh, then the attention would come back to me, and I would be accepted.

It's insane but it's a great insane.

Why would anyone be an actor if he or she weren't insecure? That's why anybody pursues this kind of work.

I don't find the characters I've played funny. The characters are actually taking their situations very seriously.

I've hitchhiked - it is 'hitchhiked,' and not 'hitchedhike' like 'passersby,' right? - a couple of times, but only in emergency situations, and that's really the time that it's okay to hitchhike.

Embarrassment and awkward situations are not foreign things to me.

I don't consider myself a comedian because I don't really concern myself too much with jokes.

Personally - and I don't mean to brag - my jokes have been falling flat for most of my life.

Anything traumatic in my life I've always dealt with through jokes and comedy.

I treasure laughs more than anything; they've helped me in life the most.

My parents raised me to treat people the way you would want to be treated and to be polite. Sometimes, when I get nervous or insecure, I might overcompensate and might not be totally true to what I am feeling inside. But I get nervous and maybe too smiley and polite.

There is something about growing up in the Midwest that gives a different kind of sensibility. But if I'm feeling insecure, the smiles and politeness get upped a notch, and maybe that isn't totally reflective of how I'm feeling on the inside.

It's not often that you get to play somebody that has absolutely no cynicism or is not judgmental in any way.