Jeff Goldblum quotes: you’ll feel smarter and probably need two Tylenol after reading these. Enjoy.
“As soon as you’re interested in what is good taste, then you’re in bad taste land already. What’s comfortable and what represents your life, what’s unique and individual about you – that’s style.”
“[On the quote that keeps him inspired] It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”
“Fulfillment means you bring an ability to be satisfied, to be fulfilled in any circumstance. You don’t wait for the outer confluence of circumstances to go, ‘Oh, now your fulfilled. I’ve got the car I wanted, I’m on a date with the right girl.’ The talent I aspire to is, no matter what cards present themselves, you’re able to find something that you’re able to call fulfillment.”
“Don’t copy anybody. Find your own unique way of things. The only career advice… is just to do everything. Do lots of different things. Some may work, some may not work, but do whatever you can.”
“Don’t knock rationalization. Where would we be without it? I don’t know anyone who’d get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They’re more important than sex. Have you ever gone a week without a rationalization?”
“While you were trying to figure out if you could, you didn’t stop to think if you should.”
“Involve yourself every day. Work hard and figure out how to love acting all day, every day. It’s getting into a made-up situation and making it good and making it real and just playing, just practicing and playing. Like the musicians that I played piano with: they never expect to be rich or famous, but they, for the sheer joy of it, play every day, all day.”
“An actor wants to get up every day and they can’t think of anything particularly more fun to do than getting into a made-up situation and living it out as if it’s real.”
“In fact you can begin to discover and investigate whether you are an actor or not, whether you’re in my view, qualified for a life in this profession or in this endeavor by checking yourself out and acting every day, getting plays and scripts and getting together with people and divvying up the parts and acting in one way or another, or writing things.”
“I now, more and more, appreciate when I’m in a group of good people and get to work in good movies and projects. I’m wildly grateful and appreciative.”
“I have received a world of education from those around me, so here’s something: use what exists. Use. What. Exists. That’s a mysterious little oyster that I want you to take with you. Unwrap it, apply it to many things. It can take you far.”
“Don’t pretend, don’t do anything in order to get anywhere. Just present yourself openly.”
“Life sciences argue that we have no free will. Free will is, yes you want the things that you desire, but why do you desire the things you do? Why do you think the things you do? You don’t choose to think things you do. They come and go. Some people say the best you can do is watch them. And get in touch with the reality of your breath and your thoughts coming and going. So be authentically whatever you are.”
“People work harder when conditions are worse.”
“It’s a delight to trust somebody so completely.”
“My life has been transformed by great teachers all the way.”
“I’m always interested in craft and I was interested to see how people work. For me, it’s a little like lessons at school.”
“Actors don’t necessarily want to be famous or rich or anything else. It’s a very bad gamble if that’s what you’re after.”
“Well, of course I would choose to be the top scientist in my field.”
“I like the challenge. I like a good, meaty experience for me.”
“I’m always interested in the unexpected and know that things, especially in show business, but in life generally, are inevitably fleeting to one extent.”
“I’m a late bloomer and humble student. It’s not that I’ve been wasting my time, but I have many areas of blindness. What do I have to lose?”
“I’m grateful that I’m kind of a late bloomer, or someone who’s still challenged by needing to work on things. I don’t envy people who just don’t have to kind of work on it. I’m lucky it’s lasted. I’ve had a chance to do things over well. I feel on the full threshold of my potential form creatively. I enjoy the work more than ever.”
“Oh yeah, oohing and ahhing, that’s how it always starts, but later there’s the running and screaming.”
“I knew. I was like, ‘Please, God, let me be an actor.’ I would write that on the shower door every morning and then wipe it off.”
“It takes 20 years to even call yourself an actor, and then a lifetime to keep getting better. Maybe that has something to do with it. I do aim to… to have a chance to get better. I’m on the threshold of doing something better. I’m enjoying acting, certainly enjoying it more than ever.”
“What else is there? Moving in the now and forward. I’m clearer about why I’m doing what I’m doing. I just have to surf the moment and go, ‘What’s the most interesting thing to me?’ There’s no right or wrong about that. Luckily, now more than ever, I get a chance to use the criteria, ‘What would I like to see? Who would I like to work with?’ There’s no shame in making a living, but I did it, and I’ve been doing it, and now I’m doing what is most exciting to me, which is sort of very pure. There’s no place to get. Here goes nothin’, and let me see from one moment to another if I can enjoy this and make it work.”
“I’m simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.”
“I travel for work, but recently, friends said I should take major trips. No matter how you travel, it’s still you going.”
“To be able to always have a super sense of who I was and my own real identity and be petty and seem informed and always thinking in thoughts would be great.”
“At its best, life is surprising. Maybe, because that’s my appetite, the frontier is uncharted. But it suits me fine. I’ve gotten used to that. Some people couldn’t bear it, but I like that life.”
“I’m grateful, and I practice attention to gratitude. Remember: it’s just good to be alive. Even if you’re just alive. I think it’s miraculously delicious to be alive.”
“I, uh, don’t think I’m, y’know, so different than your average, y’know, average.”
“No pay, no Goldblum. That’s it.”
“I’m not really focused on anybody else’s standards, but I am still trying to follow my own instincts and appetite to keep getting better. I like the idea of working with people who are doing things intended to be strictly and purely adventurous.”
“I live more in 10 minutes than most people do in an entire lifetime.”
“Right now, I’m enjoying a period of choice, and the ability to be discriminating. So I’m only trying to do things that are exciting to me. Otherwise, I’d rather stay home with the kids.”
“I’m lucky that I’ve stayed continually active. That’s a pretty good trick in itself.”
“Everything seemed to happen perfectly. I appreciate it wildly.”
“You did it. You crazy son of a b*tch, you did it.”
Related: Cate Blanchett quotes.
