Jason Bateman quotes: on second chances, wit, long careers, money, and more.
“You can only be what you are.”
“You hit those valleys sometimes and it’s really frustrating. It’s like getting stuck in traffic on the freeway. But there’s not much you can do about it.”
“Sometimes people make decisions, sh*t happens, and we gotta act accordingly.”
“People deserve a second chance, just like businesses.”
“Every once in a while, amid all the randomness, something unexpected happens and pushes us all forward.”
“I don’t really find a problem with technology or television, or anything. I’m a product of it.”
“I think the internet is a huge positive.”
“I can be on a telephone call, and be emailing or texting somebody else, as well. I would imagine everyone appreciates that efficiency of communication.”
“Our job as actors is to just try to be as accurate and as mindful of what the audience is going through and receiving and processing.”
“There’s a bunch of different flavors of funny. It’s all about the execution of it.”
“There’s this little recipe that you have to hit pretty well to get somebody to laugh. And it’s a combination of the way in which you say something, with the facial expression that you have, married with the body language that you have, etc.”
“My sense of humor is that very dry, sarcastic, non-winking kind of wit. It’s kind of become my style and my preference.”
“And I’ve always loved commercials. I like working out how to organically weave a brand’s message into the writing process. It’s like an improv show, where comics ask the audience to throw out a word and a skit is built around it.”
“In most professions, if you stay at the office an extra four hours every day, you’re gonna impress the boss. You’re gonna get that promotion; you’re gonna get that raise. You’re gonna at least have job security. But with acting, if you’re really ambitious and you have a good work ethic and are really good at your job, it might not really matter.”
“Throughout my 20s I spent a lot of time just playing and not really working, but fortunately for me I continued to get just enough work, and have a reason to wake up in the morning. I really empathize with some of my peers who had success in the early years then it dries up, and so there’s no reason to get up in the morning.”
“It was a blast. I was doing everything that teenagers do and everything people in their 20s do. I was playing as hard as I was working, which was an effort to really balance my life.”
“Do you want to continue being great at being in your 20s, or do you want to step up and graduate into adulthood?”
“I paid the price, though, when it all slowed down and then I had to weather the adjustment, the correction into normalcy. That took some growing up, but I’ve certainly no complaints about where I sit now.”
“Marathons are good training goals.”
“It was like Risky Business for 10 years. My parents were out of town, they left me a bunch of money, the car, and the house, and I didn’t know when they were coming home.”
“If you make a mistake, people are going to know about it really fast – and I was making a ton of them when I was a kid.”
“Not a lot of people get a second chance. I was fortunate enough to. Not many get a chance to hit the career reset button.”
“Obviously, I did a couple of things right on the old casting couch.”
“I like being hired to do more and more stuff. Carry more and more responsibility. It’s nice I’m getting that trust.”
“Our kids will never have to remember things, because it’s all in pictures. Want to remember your fourth birthday? There’ll be video of it on your phone.”
“I looked around at the relationships that were the longest in my life, and they were the ones I had with my friends. I thought, ‘If I only wanted to get married once, I should probably marry a friend.'”
“Money is not peace of mind. Money is not happiness. Money is, at its essence, that measure of a man’s choices.”
“I’m a pretty normal guy. I’m really good at knowing how a normal guy would react in situations.”
“I don’t worry about people misinterpreting my kindness for weakness.”
“My goal is to get another 30 years out of this business. So I need to figure out the fuel to do that. And so far, I think it’s respect and quality and company, not celebrity or box office or stardom. It’s not a sprinter’s approach. It’s more like a long-distance thing. You can stick around a lot longer if you kind of slow-play it.”
“If I’m enjoying something, I’d like to be able to just have it all. Frankly, that’s the way I’m approaching my career now. I’m a total workaholic.”
“You want 100% and 100% to make 200, instead of 50 and 50 making 100.”
“Look at us, running around. Always rushed, always late. I guess that’s why they call it the human race.”
“As disciplined as I am, I’m also a huge hedonist.”
“I don’t have anything to fix! I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t eat carbs. My life is just great now. Normal. Vanilla.”
“I’m grateful to be able to say that things have never been better in my career, having been in the business for so long. And that’s a rare thing to be able to tell people. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Next, soak up Matthew McConaughey’s quotes.
