Ben Stiller quotes: the highly-paid actor’s thoughts on acting, success, fatherhood, and more.
“I’ve had a very good career and I’m grateful that the public has had some level of acceptance and appreciation of my work.”
“As a kid I had dreams about being successful, thinking it would be cool. Then, when I was in my 20s, I really thought I had it much more figured out than I do now.”
“I was a bad student. I liked archaeology actually. I was interested in maybe becoming an archaeologist but I was such a bad student and had such bad grades that I wasn’t going to get into any really good college so I fell back on acting.”
“I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy.”
“I don’t even want to think of myself as an actor because it’s such an insecure place to go.”
“People like to define you through what they’ve seen you do. There are aspects of my personality, I guess, that come through on-screen, but I don’t sit around thinking, I’ve been a bumbling suitor all my life.”
“I’m just not a naturally cheery person. I’m naturally moody. I know that from people who spend a lot of time with me. People who spend a lot of time with me may not wish to spend a lot more time with me.”
“Sometimes I wondered whether I hadn’t let my career get confined to one direction, but lately I’ve decided to accept the fact that I have this opportunity to be successful doing comedies.”
“I don’t think it’s ever easy to be funny. I find it easy to amuse myself with a certain sort of cynical dark humor that tends toward the meaner side, like my character in Happy Gilmore. Those kinds of characters come easily to me.”
“I don’t have a burning desire to be taken seriously as an actor. I don’t have a master plan in that way.”
“I enjoy the work I do in comedies. It’s a valid test of your creative abilities.”
“I don’t think the public is dying to see me necessarily be funny all the time.”
“I think this whole celebrity world is weird anyway. Weird and funny and kind of pathetic and yet so right for parody.”
“Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. Nobody!”
“I’m always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters.”
“Zoolander was more of my own sensibility.”
“You have to stay in character in between takes.”
“I don’t devalue comedy as compared to drama. Not one bit.”
“I don’t know if anything’s going to translate anywhere. You’re making a movie, you hope it’s going to be funny, you can’t think about how it’s going to go over.”
“I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure it’s working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity.”
“I have a lot of nervous energy. Work is my best way of channeling that into something productive unless I want to wind up assaulting the postman or gardener.”
“There’s always an element of fear that you need to work a lot until people get sick and tired of you or finally figure out that you’re a fraud after all!”
“When you come out with a film, hopefully it gets presented to the public in the right way so people aren’t getting something they don’t expect.”
“The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again.”
“There’s an old saying in Hollywood: ‘It’s not the length of your film, it’s how you use it.'”
“I would like to do more dramas when I find a good role that will allow me to politely upset people’s expectations of me as a comic actor.”
“I think people will be curious to see what I can do as a dramatic actor.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is.”
“Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples.”
“I know that I’m better as an actor when I’m working with a good actor. I think anytime you’re working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor.”
“It’s what I wanted to do with my life. Not necessarily just direct Jim Carrey movies, but to direct and act and write and create and along the way, discover what it is that I’m about.”
“Jim Carrey, a comic genius, has a harder time overcoming the public’s desire for him to be funny simply because he’s so good at it.”
“It’s great to work with the people who make you laugh and who are funnier than I am.”
“Even when I’m not directing, that doesn’t stop Owen from having ideas for what I should be doing.”
“I just watched Paul Michael Glaser. He was the reason I wanted to do the movie because as a kid I was such a big fan of his. I watched all the episodes and tried to get a feeling for what he was doing.”
“Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years.”
“Very quickly after meeting Dustin, the whole image I had of him was shattered.”
“I don’t need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines!”
“It was a mixed blessing to have famous parents. It was tough to go to auditions and be bad, since I couldn’t be anonymous.”
“Whatever talent I had, I’m sure it helped that my parents were in the business and that I grew up around actors, comedians, and directors.”
“My own parents were touchy-feely.”
“My parents used to throw great New Year’s Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment.”
“Finding a woman to share your life with is not an easy thing in the first place, and then to find yourself happy is even more pleasantly surprising.”
“Having a child changes everything in a most positive way, and I am extremely lucky to have a great wife who is also an incredible mom.”
“You’re freaked out that you’re going to be having a child, and once you’re looking after your daughter, it’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”
“If you look at my eyes when I’m dancing, you’ll see that glazed look.”
“I’d love to travel more. I really look forward to traveling with my kids. I’m just waiting for them to want to travel with me.”
“When I didn’t have a family, I was much more of a workaholic. I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it’s not fun, what’s the point?”
“I have not gone to an NSYNC concert personally. But my dad did a part in Lance Bass’ new movie. He could not be a nicer young man.”
“I love history. I’m very interested by it and I think it’s great to have a movie that brings it alive in a way. It’s sort of that romanticized version of it.”
“I’m very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together.”
“I love New York. I was sad, depressed, and incredibly moved by our fellow countrymen and what they’ve done. I wanted to give people a chance to see something funny, have a distraction.”
“When we were visiting New York City, I took my kids to the same playground where I went growing up. It was fun to feel that connection of having gone there as a kid and being there as a parent.”
“There’s a sense here in L.A. that everybody’s aware of everybody all the time. It’s funny, but we choose it. People who are here want to be here, including me.”
“I think most politicians could take a dodgeball in the face.”
“Fashion is so over the top.”
“Words can only hurt you if you try to read them. Don’t play their game!”
“Maybe forced retirement isn’t necessary after all.”
“Success doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.”
Most readers follow these up with Bill Murray quotes. Not to boss you around or anything.
