Playing Yourself Quotes

#1. There are nights when you can feel stale because you've fallen into a pattern by touring too much, but it's easy to get out of it by deliberately getting in trouble and playing yourself into a corner to then see if you can get out of it.

Leo Kottke

#2. There are a whole bunch of roles where people say, 'Oh, you're playing yourself.' I guess it's kind of a compliment. Or people say, 'Oh, man, you just roll out of bed and do that.' The work is to make it look effortless. That's the hard part.

Matthew McConaughey

#3. Every character I get to play has some element of who I am, but there's no fun in playing yourself. At least, for me, there isn't.

Octavia Spencer

#4. Sometimes your characters in films do things that you wouldn't do. You're not playing yourself all the time.

Kristen Stewart

#5. Being an actor means asking people to look at you. I guess I accept that. But it's a profession in which the job is to show another world and other people. You may access it through bits of yourself, and your imagination and experience, but actually, in the end, you're not playing yourself.

Ralph Fiennes

#6. Claiming to love self, but willingly default to cheating at the first sign of trouble is nothing short of playing yourself. Your ego may feel avenged - temporarily - but your heart and soul, the true self, will suffer the long term affects of karma's justifiable sting.

T.F. Hodge

#7. It's one of the main things that I love about my job. You are never playing yourself, so I really love that I get to be someone else, play a different character and take on that persona, but I also have to take on their qualifications.

Sasha Jackson

#8. Anything you are shows up in your music - jazz is whatever you are, playing yourself, being yourself, letting your thoughts come through.

Mary Lou Williams

#9. You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.

Arthur Ashe

#10. It's a werewolf movie with Christina Ricci, and it was a chance to work with some good people. But playing yourself is always fairly risky because you gotta watch how you goof on yourself.

Scott Baio

#11. Imagine yourself sitting on top of a great thoroughbred horse. You sit up there and you just feel that power. That's what it was like playing quarterback on that team [the Pittsburgh Steelers]. It was a great ride.

Terry Bradshaw

#12. If you begin to think you are solely responsible for keeping your loved one alive and safe, you will eventually find yourself playing God. This phase can develop into an unhealthy, codependent relationship.

Gail Sheehy

#13. Like an actor who transforms into the character that they're playing, you can transform into yourself.

Leeza Gibbons

#14. Sanguine: You mind if I take pictures? Brought my own camera and everythin'
Valkyrie: Knock yourself out
Sanguine: Thanks
Valkyrie: No, really, run head first into a wall and knock yourself out

Derek Landy

#15. Always ask yourself the golden question: If I could master one skill today, which skill would make the biggest difference in my playing?

David Dumais

#16. It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause by yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others - playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Robert Greene

#17. Making love without noise is like playing a muted piano-fine for practice, but you cheat yourself out of hearing the glorious results.

David Levithan

#18. There's a certain - there's a different pressure with playing in a Ryder Cup. You know, you're not just playing for yourself. You're playing for your teammates. You're playing for your country.

Rory McIlroy

#19. Usually I like playing other people. I like finding myself through other characters. But when you do cabaret, you are yourself. I think it's the most fun, and I tell you, if somebody had told me that, I would have done it fifteen years earlier than I did.

Faith Prince

#20. There is something special about baseball that goes far deeper than being a game. It is the father-son relationship that is built, the life lessons that are taught in the process of playing a game and the ability to overcome not succeeding all of the time and still considering yourself a success.

JohnA Passaro

#21. Doing an accent removes you from yourself and reminds you, every instant, that you're playing a part.

Mia Wasikowska

#22. I do love playing aristocrats, probably because it's so against type. So much more interesting than playing a version of yourself.

Keeley Hawes

#23. Close your eyes for a few seconds and imagine yourself playing Super Mario Brothers.

Anonymous

#24. You don't have to set aside a time for meditation. You can do it while you're driving your car,while you're at work, while you're playing music. Just be aware of yourself, of who you really are,and realize the rest is a projection of your mind.

Robert Adams

#25. If you find yourself always playing the villain, or if you find yourself being typecast into a corner where you're not happy then that's probably rather miserable, but if I have been typecast I am quite happy about it.

James Purefoy

#26. If you're playing a cop in a modern film, you don't have to walk with your spine straight up and bow before a fight. There's a lot of free form of expressing yourself as an actor.

Donnie Yen

#27. You don't realize how much a part of your character is part of yourself until you are no longer playing that character.

Julie Benz

#28. So be gentle with yourself; show yourself the same kindness and patience you might show a young child - the child you once were. If you won't be your own friend, who will be? If, when playing an opponent, you are also opposing yourself, you will be outnumbered.

Dan Millman

#29. I think dating is all about role playing, and figuring out what you want and don't want. You figure out more about yourself by meeting people. You're like, "I'm not right for that person, but why am I not?" I think dating is a really interesting journey.

Shiri Appleby

#30. You can read books on stuff all day long, but until you get out there and just do it, if you want to start playing, and you want to make some music, then go out and play. Go find yourself a venue and play, even if it's in your home. Just play every day. You win the fight by fighting.

Christian Kane

#31. The number one priority is playing baseball. There are so many people in New York trying to get you to do this and get you to do that, which is fine, but you have to take care of yourself.

Derek Jeter

#32. At the beginning of 'The Hills,' I couldn't watch myself because I'm very critical and would pick myself to pieces. But with movies I feel like it's different because you're playing a character. So it's like watching yourself but not watching yourself.

Audrina Patridge

#33. Quit the bitching on your blog
And stop pretending art is hard.
Just limit yourself to three chords
And do not practice daily.
You'll minimize some stranger's sadness
With a piece of wood and plastic.
Holy fuck it's so fantastic,
Playing ukulele.

Amanda Palmer

#34. I really enjoy playing solo acoustic. I think it's good for me as a songwriter to stay in touch with what it takes to make a song work by yourself.

Jeff Tweedy

#35. I don't care what you're playing. You can be playing EDM music. Well, guess what? That came out in the early '80s. There's no way to be original. All you can do is put yourself into it and do the best you can.

Brittany Howard

#36. Stop wasting time in playing a role or a concept. Instead, learn to ACTUALIZE YOURSELF, your potential.

Bruce Lee

#37. When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.

Bradley Whitford

#38. Teenagers all think their life is a movie. If you break up with someone or you have a fight, you walk around with movie scores playing in your head. You sort of see yourself suffering as you're suffering. There's a lot of melodrama attached to the real events of your life.

Kenneth Lonergan

#39. I think the best roles are in dark movies. It's roles that aren't you. It's fun playing someone that's not me. If I'm playing me all the time, then it's not acting. It's just being yourself.

Chloe Grace Moretz

#40. The bulk of my set is instrumental and you have to give yourself and the audience some relief because a performance is not about great guitar playing it's really about entertainment.

Leo Kottke

#41. There is a fine line between compassion and a victim mentality. Compassion though is a healing force and comes from a place of kindness towards yourself. Playing the victim is a toxic waste of time that not only repels other people, but also robs the victim of ever knowing true happiness.

Bronnie Ware

#42. The truth is, one can work for another ten years and be playing parts, pushing yourself as hard as you can, and you are still accused of that. You're still tainted with that brush. I'm not called Jude Law, I have three names; I'm called 'Hunk Jude Law'.

Jude Law

#43. There is nothing nicer than playing someone who is cooler, tougher, more virtuous and sexier than yourself and thinking, 'I can be anyone.'

Jason Isaacs

#44. Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ... Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.

John Steinbeck

#45. I do hope that for the young women watching the show they know it is heightened reality and just grown ups playing teenagers. That's not how it is supposed to go. Just keep it to yourself.

Hilarie Burton

#46. My biggest musical dream is to keep playing all my life. There's nothing bigger than that and that's very challenging because you have to satisfy yourself at every stage.

Hiromi

#47. You're used to having a camera in your face when you're playing a character - it's like having a mask on. But when you have to be you, you're so worried you'll make an idiot of yourself. Acting is a kind of escapism.

Sheridan Smith

#48. You can't function in society if you don't involve yourself in the fictions society accepts about time. But you do so with the understanding that you're playing a game.

Brad Warner

#49. As an actor, you're always playing different people, so you yourself are always kind of going through an identity crisis.

Josh Hutcherson

#50. Washington is like playing the Super Bowl, only there are no timeouts, no potty breaks, and the arena is filled with the media. In government, you have to learn to put yourself second in a big way. But I am a business person at heart. I like to be in charge.

Desiree Rogers

#51. The feeling you get from playing to a good audience is hard to describe without sounding as though you are talking silly. But reaction is important. You might feel in yourself that you're doing it ok but it's when you get the live reaction that you know you're doing it right.

Tony Iommi

#52. Sport is a wonderful metaphor for life. Of all the sports that I played - skiing, baseball, fishing - there is no greater example than golf, because you're playing against yourself and nature.

Robert Redford

#53. Intimacy comes from being yourself on the stage and making the audience feel, without trying, that you're sittin' down there with 'em, playing, and that can happen in a big hall, if you have a good audience that want to listen.

Doc Watson

#54. You're only as good as you're next thought of yourself.

Curtis Tyrone Jones

#55. I like playing an array of different roles. From the fun, comedic roles to the serious roles. It's always fun to play the role that either closely represents your own personality or the role that is completely opposite of yourself.

Manika

#56. And then one day when you're playing your little game you'll suddenly find yourself pinned down like a butterfly.

Ian Fleming

#57. Hey Boo, I'm in this now, too, & I got a lot of experience playing assholes like they're fucking harps. You need backup, I got you. Stop trying to convince yourself that you're in this alone.

Alexandra Bracken

#58. Oh, adjust yourself. You people have spent ten millennia playing at soldiers while becoming ever more dedicated civilians. We've spent the last thousand years trying hard to stay civilian while refining the legacy of a won galactic war.

Iain M. Banks

#59. When you make the decision to start something new, first figure out the jobs you want to do. Then position yourself to play where no one else is playing.

Whitney Johnson

#60. During the off-season when you see other people playing in the Super Bowl, you wonder, and you say to yourself, 'Are you ever gonna get there and see what it feels like?' And it pushes you a little bit harder during that off-season to work to try to get there the following year.

Walter Payton

#61. If you play men, in a way it's easier. You can have a voicebox, you can have false hair, mustaches, wigs, you can have all kinds of stuff. But when you're playing women playing men, you only really have yourself to work with, plus tiny little extras.

Janet McTeer

#62. You're really playing against yourself. You have to learn what you can control and what you can't, and not let what you can't control affect your confidence.

Mike Richter

#63. Acting was definitely half of what I loved about storytelling and about theater. So, when I get a chance to do a cameo in a show or do a movie, it's a lot of fun and it's always great stepping outside of yourself and either playing a bizarro version of yourself or playing a character.

Josh Groban

#64. Playing solo is difficult because you have to keep the momentum yourself. You have to continue to create and develop, so it forces you to stretch in a variety of ways.

McCoy Tyner

#65. The playing field is anything but level when you walk into the grocery store. So much government subsidy goes into processed foods. Even when you're well-meaning as a parent or a shopper for yourself, you can't help but be pulled toward the highly processed food.

Michael Moss

#66. By listening, by caring, by playing you back to yourself, friends ratify your better instincts and endorse your unique worth. Friends validate you.

Gail Sheehy

#67. Whether it's playing catch or going to the weight room, you've just got to blend in and introduce yourself as you go along.

Tyler Beede

#68. The best thing about acting is when you're playing a scene and you actually become your character and lose yourself in that moment. That's when you know you've been succeeded at what you've worked very hard to accomplish in your profession. Those are the truly thrilling moments.

Meryl Streep

#69. To be in love is to see yourself as someone else sees you, it is to be in love with the falsified and exalted image of yourself. In love we are incapable of honour - the courageous act is no more than playing a part to an audience of two.

Graham Greene

#70. Sometimes an actor performs a character, but sometimes an actor just performs. With writing, I don't think it's performing a character, really, if the character you're performing is yourself. I don't see that as playing a role. It's just appearing in public.

Joan Didion

#71. Obviously, not playing a game before playoffs is something that happened, but especially going into the playoffs, you try to feel yourself out, where you're at, and then get right into game tempo and jump right in and play where you were before the injury.

Patrick Kane

#72. When you're playing poorly, you start thinking too much. That's when you confuse yourself.

Greg Norman

#73. I love accents. It's a great way to separate yourself when playing a role.

Gary Carr

#74. Be a bit of a challenge; not because you're playing games but because you realize you're worth the extra effort.

Mandy Hale

#75. Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where's your river going? Are you riding with it? Or are you rowing against it? Don't you see that there is no effort if you're riding with your river?

Frederick Carl Frieseke

#76. Once you play a tournament, you're playing against the golf course, you're playing against yourself and trying to do the best you can.

Jack Nicklaus

#77. For my money, if I'm playing anything then it has to have some sharp angles on it. It's got to have some edges that you can cut yourself on, otherwise it's boring.

Grant Bowler

#78. Everybody can make a choice to be more positive. It's about who you hang around and what you choose to watch on TV. What environment you put yourself in. It's easy to get a negative internal dialogue. You have to be aware of what's playing in your mind.

Victoria Osteen

#79. That wall is your mind playing tricks on you. You just need to say, 'One more step, I can do this. I have more in me.' You'll be so proud of yourself once you push yourself past your threshold.

Kerri Walsh

#80. You have to know what club you are playing for, or you just play for yourself. Every time I put on a Liverpool shirt, I know it is more than just a football game.

Fernando Torres

#81. So pathetic," he said, with a grunt. "So sad. Such a cliche. You can be so fond of cinema, of world literature, the classics, but then, when you find yourself playing out a classic scene, you don't feel ennobled, linked to that greatness. You feel...pathetic.

David Cronenberg

#82. There are a lot of tricks you have to keep playing on yourself to keep at it because every time you hit a problem you want to walk away.

Janet Fish

#83. Writing is active. It requires your fully conscious self. You need to show up and show us your gift. Until you do that, you're just practicing in private. Playing around. Kidding yourself. Don't do that.

Jeff Goins

#84. When I was younger, the red carpet used to terrify me because it's not about playing a part: you're not in a film pretending to be someone - you are yourself. It's intimidating.

Alexandra Maria Lara

#85. If you are playing King Lear you are the centre of attention anyway. You don't need to draw attention to yourself. It's all laid out for you.

Ian McKellen

#86. Fashion is such a fairytale and it is such a fantasy. And it's about metamorphosis and sort of changing yourself and playing a part that you want people to see.

Marc Jacobs

#87. If you're the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you're that kind of person, you'll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for something that never happens. Then, you die a boring old man.

Robert T. Kiyosaki

#88. You yourself told us that in the final analysis we are our own betrayers, playing Judas to our own Christ

Azar Nafisi

#89. Knowing to do the right thing, but playing stupid to oblige to it, is still lying.

Anthony Liccione

#90. Practice and playing music has to be like a religious experience. It has to be your religion, you know; it has to be your trance. You get something from a devotion to it and digging deeper into yourself and the nature of reality.

Jonathan Harnum

#91. Playing music is a lifetime's work. And if you want to carry on with it, you have to try to better yourself. You have to see where the music can take you.

Paul Weller

#92. Time, place, and space for all things, but spending [the] majority of one's time playing in outer places, and far less time exploring inner space, is perhaps the worst form of neglect. Don't play yourself; the real you awaits.

T.F. Hodge

#93. Making a film, you do need stamina, whether you're doing fight scenes or not. It's important to keep fit. I'm not talking about having perfect abs and stuff, but you've got to be on top of your game, especially if you're playing the lead. You have to look after yourself.

Liam Neeson

#94. Practicing is not only playing your instrument, either by yourself or rehearsing with others - it also includes imagining yourself practicing. Your brain forms the same neural connections and muscle memory whether you are imagining the task or actually doing it.

Yo-Yo Ma

#95. Writing is about allowing yourself to become a vessel of creativity. Writers are avatars of creation. We have tender hearts, and strong emotions. It's hard not to when you have a million different people's personalities playing out in your head.

Sai Marie Johnson

#96. I've always been active - outdoors, on the beach, playing - and so to go home and have to sit on my couch and relax ... it's frustrating. Sometimes, you just have to really shut yourself down.

Landon Donovan

#97. I liken movies to playing a piano: Sometimes you're playing the chords and different notes with unresolved cadences and playing all major chords that are all over the place, and you're enjoying yourself with a great, simple melody.

Jake Gyllenhaal

#98. I like the idea of playing in unison with yourself.

Richard Thompson

#99. If you're playing around with a film, you're just playing around with it. But if it has to go into theaters, you get yourself into gear and finish it.

William Monahan

#100. Playing the sex object may not be dangerous for Miley Cyrus, with her bodyguards to protect her, but for a 13-year-old girl hanging out at a party at night, it can be. So I think it's fair to say to musicians: "Objectifying yourself is not the best choice."

Keli Goff