The Best John Lithgow quotes

I gave up shame a long time ago. — John Lithgow

Time sneaks up on you like a wind shield on a bug. — John Lithgow

I was in 20 Shakespearean plays by the time I was 20. — John Lithgow

It’s a very tough time for the playwright. Broadway has become almost a musical comedy theme park with all these long–running shows. — John Lithgow

If you’re an actor, you tend to fool yourself into thinking you’re much younger than you are because you’re playing parts and behaving like a child all the time. — John Lithgow

Good acting is really excellent carpentry. — John Lithgow

You have to overcome enormous self–consciousness, but nudity is about the strongest thing you can do in an acting performance. It’s the most unsettling or the most comic or the most sexual. — John Lithgow

The most exciting acting tends to happen in roles you never thought you could play. — John Lithgow

We all have our secrets, and we all have our deceptions. Acting, at its best, is all about deceiving people, and this makes it all the more interesting to us. — John Lithgow

If my life was a play, age 35 was my intermission. — John Lithgow

I am a storyteller, and the stories I tell are, when I’m lucky, really good ones. It’s a very exciting thing to do with your life, and that’s, I think, what keeps me hopeful. — John Lithgow

That’s how you deal with stardom; you make it the least important part of your life. — John Lithgow

I don’t deal with the nuts and bolts of life. — John Lithgow

I got a wonderful college education. I went to Harvard. In those four years I accumulated a lot of knowledge but I also created a kind of habit of learning that has stayed with me my whole life. — John Lithgow

I was married very young. I lived a very middle class life. I was married at age 21, divorced at 31. I didn’t sleep on people’s couches. — John Lithgow

In animation, there’s this exhilarating moment of discovery when you see the film and you say, Oh THAT’S what I was doing. — John Lithgow

I don’t hesitate to do nudity as an actor if it’s done well. — John Lithgow

I’m a lazy actor, lazier than you would think. I don’t usually do a lot of research. — John Lithgow

I owe my whole career as a storyteller to my father. He was an actor/director/producer and teacher. — John Lithgow

I’m a con artist in that I’m an actor. I make people believe something is real when they know perfectly well it isn’t. — John Lithgow

Instead of being a theater actor who sometimes does movies I became a movie actor who sometimes does theater. — John Lithgow

If you hear enough applause and laughter at a young enough age, you are doomed to become an actor. — John Lithgow

Anyone who hears enough laughter and applause at a young age will become an actor, whether they intend to or not. — John Lithgow

I consider myself a very lucky actor that, approaching 60, I’m still employed and employable. — John Lithgow

Growing up I didn’t want to be an actor. I sort of didn’t want to go into the family business; the main reason being there was something I wanted to do far more, which was be an artist. — John Lithgow

I subscribe to the great George G. Scott quote, ‘All actors are in trouble. Directors who don’t help are a pain in the ass’. We all need help from directors. We are all equally insecure. — John Lithgow

I went to Harvard and immediately fell into the theater gang, and I was already an experienced actor, so you go with the flow! I’ve already used the phrase ‘campus star. — John Lithgow

Mine is the only photograph of an American actor to grace the walls of the Actors’ Bar at The Dirty Duck. — John Lithgow

I got to have a great big knock–down, drag–out fight with Sylvester Stallone. Every actor should have that much fun at some point. You can hit him as hard as you can, and it’s never enough for him. — John Lithgow

I have a love/hate relationship with my height–I am 6 ft. 4 in. — John Lithgow

I really prize and love great painting. It’s so out of date now. It’s slightly come back in. — John Lithgow

Love Is Strange’ was just a beautiful experience in so many ways. — John Lithgow

Books make great gifts because they’re something you love that you can share. — John Lithgow

I look for every opportunity to mix comedy and horror and tragedy. I love catching audiences off–guard. — John Lithgow

Take care, be kind, be considerate of other people and other species, and be loving. — John Lithgow

If we are ever going to save this society and the world, there has got to be a way for us to work together. That may be more than we can ever hope to achieve, just because of human nature. — John Lithgow

I certainly had my years as an out of work actor but I was married with a baby. My wife was supporting us. — John Lithgow

I can’t imagine doing an hour–long dramatic series because it’s so much work. A sitcom is a wonderful gig. You work from 10 to 4 every day, it’s fun, and you get to live at home. — John Lithgow

If it’s well written and well directed and you’ve got good actors to work with, acting is easy. But making sure all the ducks are in a row is the hard part. It’s very rare — John Lithgow