Top 56 William H. Macy Quotes
#2. Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.
William H. Macy
#3. Anyway, I try to be a good guy. I try to tell the truth, but I'm not religious.
William H. Macy
#4. I'm not much of a preparer. I think sometimes as an actor you need to go out and learn some skills, but in terms of preparation for understanding the character, it's all on the page, and if it's not on the page, you're in trouble.
William H. Macy
#5. So many actors spend so much energy trying to remember the lines. It's so foolish. Guys are the worst.
William H. Macy
#6. I've written a lot of scripts that someone else directed, and it's absolutely vital that, if I'm gonna act in it, then I have to take off the writer hat and let the director direct.
William H. Macy
#7. Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.
William H. Macy
#8. When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.
William H. Macy
#9. Oh yeah, that's the Holy Grail, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp, he's the real deal, isn't he? He doesn't get the girl, and he doesn't care.
William H. Macy
#10. It started with the Godfather, this operatic violence. I don't know.
William H. Macy
#11. Perhaps there is such a thing as obscene sex, but I know that violence is always obscene. So I don't get it, that you can disembowel a woman but you can't see her tits. Who made that up? That's sick!
William H. Macy
#12. It sure is boring to be around people who are in character all the time. I always find it's closer to mental illness than acting excellence.
William H. Macy
#13. Ninety percent of the preparation we do as actors is just jive. It doesn't do anything.
William H. Macy
#14. We thought sex was free. Sex is not free. There's a price to be paid emotionally, physically, even legally. Sex isn't a casual thing. It's a huge thing.
William H. Macy
#15. Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.
William H. Macy
#16. Shameless is a rough show, and it's not for everyone, but it's also beautiful.
William H. Macy
#17. I do love comedy, but I'm not brave enough to tackle a script whose goal is to make you laugh. That's tough. The ones that can do it, I tip my hat off to them, but I don't have that kind of humor or mind.
William H. Macy
#18. I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.
William H. Macy
#19. Everyone hooks up with George Clooney. He's a genuinely cool guy. He's using his powers for good.
William H. Macy
#20. I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.
William H. Macy
#21. If I like the story and it's well written, and it's a character I want to play and they'll pay me, then I decide to do it.
William H. Macy
#22. I'm not religious. It's an issue, 'cause I've got two little kids, and I feel you can't grow up without knowledge of religion.
William H. Macy
#23. We all want to be 20 again and have that first sense of love.
William H. Macy
#24. I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.
William H. Macy
#25. One's complete sentences are attempts, as often as not, to complete an incomplete self with words.
William H. Macy
#27. I don't watch rushes. My whole thing is to try to stay in the moment with the other actor, and to let it all hang. I'm not sure I'm right on that, though.
William H. Macy
#28. You can skim those stage directions and go right to the dialogue. You can almost read the movie in the same amount of time it will take you to see the movie.
William H. Macy
#29. It's a shame ... you just don't see young people doing anything outside these days.
William H. Macy
#30. I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.
William H. Macy
#31. A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife.
William H. Macy
#32. I'm not against watching myself, but I miss a lot of it. I've got two little kids who we don't let watch TV.
William H. Macy
#33. When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.
William H. Macy
#34. The only people who do plays in LA are people who can't get jobs in TV shows.
William H. Macy
#35. Writers love to write those idiotic, long stage directions, and some of them worse than others. They have nothing to do with the movie. They're just jerking around.
William H. Macy
#38. I'm really proud of the writing on Door to Door, and I think that's the Emmy that meant the most - the writing.
William H. Macy
#39. Somebody's gotta stand up and say pubic hair is good, murder is bad. Sex is good, violence is bad.
William H. Macy
#40. There are statistics out that say 20 year olds, 18 years olds think about sex 90 percent of the time. They only don't think about sex when they're eating, and that's rare.
William H. Macy
#41. The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night.
William H. Macy
#42. I'm sure I have a process, but it mostly takes place in my dreams.
William H. Macy
#43. What actors are good at doing is walking into a situation that should make you incredibly self-conscious and frightened and doing it anyway. That's the gig, pretending that you are comfortable.
William H. Macy
#44. I introduced myself to Scorsese and I said, "If you need someone to do craft services, I'm there."
William H. Macy
#45. We must admit that it is quite common that people do have affairs with their leading ladies and men.
William H. Macy
#46. I've always felt it's the directors purview to say what; it's the actor's purview to say how. It's not good for an actor to have the big picture in mind - it bollocks you up. An actor's purview is the tiny little ... We measure our performance in seconds.
William H. Macy
#47. It's hard to be depressed around a ukulele. You just pick it up and you're halfway home.
William H. Macy
#48. I think I've been in situations where they looked at me and just see some rich white guy - they don't see me at all.
William H. Macy
#49. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. It's not right. Someone's gotta say it. They said it. I applaud them.
William H. Macy
#51. When Fargo came out, I hired a publicist for the first time in my life. I thought, if ever I was going to make it, that was then.
William H. Macy
#52. I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.
William H. Macy
#53. There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.
William H. Macy
#54. I've got two little girls, I'm not scared about sex. I'll teach them, it's not going to kill them. But what could kill them is violence. Guns, drinking and driving, these are the real dangers in our society.
William H. Macy
#55. Directors work 10 times harder than anyone else. Get paid a quarter.
William H. Macy
#56. We always want to see people strive and see the human spirit triumph against adversity. That's what it's all about because that's what we're doing. We're trying to triumph in our lives.
William H. Macy
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