Bill Murray Quotes & Sayings

Awards are meaningless to me, and I have nothing but disdain for anyone who actively campaigns to get one. — Bill Murray

I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do. — Bill Murray

I'm a nut, but not just a nut. — Bill Murray

Disneyland. The world's biggest people trap, built by a mouse. — Bill Murray

People usually go through a bad period when they first get successful. You're new and you're hot and things go wrong. — Bill Murray

You know ... they say an elephant never forgets.
What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant. — Bill Murray

Like: 'Don't walk out there with one hand in your pocket unless there's somethin' in there you're going to bring out.' You gotta commit. You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time. — Bill Murray

If it starts to drag on set, or if you feel like it's not a fun experience, people get down, the energy gets down. You've got to keep the energy up. — Bill Murray

We're born alone. We do need each other. It's lonely to really effectively live your life, and anyone you can get help from or give help to; that's part of your obligation. — Bill Murray

Morocco is the greatest. I should be getting money from the Moroccans because I'm just telling everyone that it's a wonderful place to go. — Bill Murray

I don't know how this guy knew how much money I was making. I didn't know how much money I was making. — Bill Murray

Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future isn't here yet, whatever it's going to be. So, all there is, is this. The present. That's it. — Bill Murray

Atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair was murdered. Jon Murray and Robin Murray-O'Hair were also murdered by individuals involved with the atheist organization. — Bill Murray

I would jump into the middle of the street and say, "excuse me, there's a Mercedes that's got to get through here." And I would push people out of the way, "get out of the way! Let him through!" Smacking their cars and stuff. Just like, "whack" and you just jump into it. — Bill Murray

Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do, it's usually something unusual. — Bill Murray

My iPhone has 2 million times the storage of the 1969 Apollo 11 computer. They went to the moon. I throw birds at pig houses — Bill Murray

Sometimes I snore, like when I get really tired. — Bill Murray

I'm just an obnoxious guy who can make it appear charming, that's what they pay me to do. — Bill Murray

We still have to put some cherry syrup on it, and then we can eat it — Bill Murray

Its Christmas Eve! Its the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be. — Bill Murray

Most people, when they talk fast, they get flat. — Bill Murray

I kinda like this Jay-Z thing, where he's retired, but he keeps doing shows. I think I beat him to that. If you say you're retired, people don't bother you so much, and then if you want to do something, you can do it. — Bill Murray

It's the most terrifying day of your life, the day the first one is born. Your life, as you know it, is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk, and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you'll ever meet in your life. — Bill Murray

Whenever I think of the high salaries we are paid as film actors, I think it is for the travel, the time away, and any trouble you get into through being well known. It's not for the acting, that's for sure. — Bill Murray

People say I'm difficult and sometimes that's a badge of honour. — Bill Murray

I've killed myself so many times, I don't even exist anymore. — Bill Murray

You can't think about what you're going to do. It just gets in the way. You have to be just available for life, otherwise you're not bringing anything to the party. So I don't lie awake thinking about what I'm going to do workwise. There's just too much going on. — Bill Murray

The Best Way to teach your kids about taxes is by eating 30% of their ice cream. — Bill Murray

That's the reason I'm not the one that's dead because the attraction of the fast life is very powerful. — Bill Murray

We're Americans! Do you know what that means? It means our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. — Bill Murray

Grab this day by the neck and kiss it. — Bill Murray

People confuse friendship and relaxation. It's incredibly important to be relaxed - you don't have a chance if you're not relaxed. So I try very hard to relax any kind of tension. But friendship is different. — Bill Murray

Let's get one thing straight at the beginning. A lunar eclipse simply will not do. You may have seen a partial solar eclipse, but neither will that do. The sun is such a monster that until a few minutes before totality the light from the sun blasts right around the disk of the moon and the Earth is little changed.

Annie Dillard wrote that the difference between a partial eclipse and a total one is the difference between kissing a man and marrying him.

Just so. So people search out totality, no matter how remote the spot. And so we have come to Svalbard.

- from Out in the Cold — Bill Murray

The secret is to have a sense of yourself, your real self, your unique self. And not just once in a while, or once a day, but all through the day, the week and life. — Bill Murray

Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself. — Bill Murray

Be available for life to happen. — Bill Murray

Mrs. O'Hair died horribly, a victim of the world she helped to shape. Without the Deity she fought so hard against, there is no right and wrong, increasingly people are ruled by their passions and humanity is a tragedy waiting to happen. — Bill Murray

Well it's hard to be yourself, it's the hardest job there is. — Bill Murray

'Groundhog Day' was one of the greatest scripts ever written. It didn't even get nominated for an Academy Award. — Bill Murray

Movie acting suits me because I only need to be good for ninety seconds at a time. — Bill Murray

Life is a game, and it's much more fun if you play it as your own game, so stay light and loose and relaxed. — Bill Murray

This really should be kept secret, but you can learn a lot by watching the making-of DVDs. Every actor should do it. You figure out what you're dealing with. — Bill Murray

When I started, the scripts weren't as good, and you'd have to have a huge burst of energy to go, "Sheesh, how am I going to? This stuff's no good." So you'd have to improvise something or create something or try to work with the ware and try to figure out, how do you make this visually and orally acceptable, entertaining? Nowadays, the scripts are just so much better, that you don't have to feel that way. You feel like the script's coming to you, you can just relax. You don't have to drive the boat. — Bill Murray

The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself. — Bill Murray

I wanted to be a doctor once upon a time, but it turns out you've got to study, and that wasn't going to happen. I had no idea what I was going to do. I had trouble holding jobs because they want you to be on time. That wasn't going to work. — Bill Murray

The only way we'll ever know what it's like to be you is if you work your best at being you as often as you can, and keep reminding yourself: That's where home is. — Bill Murray

But I can only take so much TV, because there is so much advice. I find people will preach about virtually anything - your diet, how to live your life, how to improve your golf. The lot. I have always had a thing against the Mister Know-It-Alls. — Bill Murray

Life is so damn short. For fuck's sake, just do what makes you happy. — Bill Murray

I don't really read the reviews - but I remember one I read a long time ago that said I had a face like a potato. — Bill Murray

And I say, 'Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.' And he says, 'Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. — Bill Murray

When you act obnoxious towards people, like on a movie set, they say "we're ready for you" and I say "oh, go to hell, my feet hurt and my head aches." You want to have a margarita for lunch, and people like these little ADs and production assistants are like, "well, he's drinking again." — Bill Murray

I think midlife crisis is just a point where people's careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships. — Bill Murray

I've never made any horrible, horrible movies. If you don't ruin your reputation, you can always get work. — Bill Murray

The cool part about naming your kid is you don't have to add six numbers to make sure the name is available. — Bill Murray

When I was a little kid playing baseball, my manager called me Sleepy. And only a few people, who know me from way, way back, call me that still. I used to drift off and that's why they made me the catcher, so I wouldn't fall asleep. That gift I have still. — Bill Murray

And I don't like to work. I only like working when I'm working. — Bill Murray

There must be a bad chromosome somewhere in man that urges him to wound that which he can't conquer, deface that which is more beautiful, misunderstand and befoul the work of another. — Bill Murray

I think romance basically starts with respect. And new romance always starts with respect. Like the song 'Love the One You're With'; there is something to that. It's not just make love to whomever you're with, it's just love whomever you're with. — Bill Murray

I think there's only so many people that can take care of themselves, and can take care of other people. And the rest of the people ... they're useful in terms of compost for the whole planet, you know. — Bill Murray

I improvise whenever I feel it's important, or whenever I think that something's there. It's nice to have a script that's so well-written that I don't have to improvise. I mean, I used to have to re-write whole movies; this is kind of nice. — Bill Murray

I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job. — Bill Murray

Where do these stairs go?
They go up! — Bill Murray

I realized the more fun I had, the more relaxed I was working, the better I worked. — Bill Murray

You have to hope that [good things] happen to you. [ ... ] That's the only thing we really, surely have, is hope. You hope that you can be alive, that things will happen to you that you'll actually witness, that you'll participate in. Rather than life just rolling over you, and you wake up and it's Thursday, and what happened to Monday? Whatever the best part of my life has been, has been as a result of that remembering. — Bill Murray

If you have a good script, that's what gets you involved. It's harder to write a good screenplay than to find something. — Bill Murray

So far, I've only sailed in the Caribbean. I've sailed the Virgin Island and The Grenadines. I liked all that. We charted some really crummy boats in the Grenadines. That made for an exciting sailing trip (laughs) when everything goes well. When everything goes well. When sails rip, engines freeze up and you find there are organisms growing inside the diesel, it's terrible and amazing stuff. — Bill Murray

You gotta want it. — Bill Murray

I feel that if you really want an Oscar, you're in trouble. It's like wanting to be married - you'll take anybody. If you want the Oscar really badly, it becomes a naked desire and ambition. It becomes very unattractive. — Bill Murray

You want my dark side? Have I ever stolen anything? Not so much intentionally. But I don't think it's so much stealing as ... being a part of the flow of the universe. You know, where there's an exchange. It's positive. It's negative. There's an exchange of goods and services — Bill Murray

Zombies dont mess with other zombies. — Bill Murray

There are a lot of actors that are more talented than me at Second City who quit it before they even got to a paying status. Weird luck. I had no other option. — Bill Murray

Those are my people, you know? The ones who are going to crash and burn. — Bill Murray

I feel like I'm a better person when I'm quieter. — Bill Murray

Love can be seeing that here we are and there's this world here. — Bill Murray

Somewhere there's a score being kept, so you have an obligation to live life as well as you can, be as engaged as you can. — Bill Murray

When the phone started ringing too many times, I had to take it back to what I can handle. I take my chances on a job or a person as opposed to a situation. I don't like to have a situation placed over my head. — Bill Murray

Golf was my first glimpse of comedy. I was a caddy when I was a kid. I was on the golf course rather than being in lessons, but I can play better now than I could then. — Bill Murray

People are like music, some speak the truth and others are just noise. — Bill Murray

I think we're all sort of imprisoned by - or at least bound to - the choices we make ... You want to say no at the right time and you want to say 'yes' more sparingly. — Bill Murray

I don't answer fan mail. I don't have time for that. It's like hundreds of thousands of people who think they're going to become millionaires getting autographs from movie actors. I don't have time for those idiots. I've got stuff to do. — Bill Murray

You'll never be good if you don't know that you are. — Bill Murray

I think all phases of one's career are serious if you take it seriously no matter if you are doing high profile dramatic pieces or not. — Bill Murray

Yeah, I think that's sort of the American way. And it's also the Polish way, it turns out. — Bill Murray

The atheists traditionally hold their conventions from Good Friday to Easter Sunday during the hours Christ spent in the grave. — Bill Murray

I'm suspicious of people who don't like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn't like a person. — Bill Murray

I think if you can take care of yourself, and then maybe try to take care of someone else, that's sort of how you're supposed to live. — Bill Murray

I count on the kindness of strangers. — Bill Murray

There's only a couple times when fame is ever helpful. Sometimes you can get into a restaurant where the kitchen is just closing. Sometimes you can avoid a traffic violation. But the only time it really matters is in the emergency room with your kids. That's when you want to be noticed, because it's very easy to get forgotten in an ER. — Bill Murray

It's given many great performers their start, but more importantly, it's killed thousands of barely talented people and it's put them to death, and they're now doing the jobs they're built for. — Bill Murray

I think the only reason I've had the career life that I've had is that someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed, no matter what it is or what your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That's sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had, the better I did it. And I thought, that's a job I could be proud of. It's changed my life learning that, and it's made me better at what I do. — Bill Murray

Everyone needs to take a vacation from the sort of automatic things you do. — Bill Murray

You know the theory of cell irritability?. If you take an amoeba cell and poke it a thousand times, it will change and then re-form into its original shape. And then, the thousandth time you poke this amoeba, the cell will completely collapse and become nothing. That's kind of what it's like being famous. People say hi, how are you doing, and after the thousandth time, you just get angry; you really pop. — Bill Murray

The way financing for independent movies goes is great. You get the money from the guy who's actually doing the distribution in France. You say, "Do you want a piece of this movie?" And he's got to sell this movie to get his money back. That's the brains of it; that's the genius of this financing. "You want Germany? Give us a million dollars and you've got Germany." — Bill Murray

I throw a Christmas party at my house. It's not really a Christmas party, because I don't want to call it a Christmas party. But let's just say I put a lot of Christmas trees around the house, so it smells good. — Bill Murray

Friendship is so weird. You just pick a human you've met and you're like, 'Yep, I like this one,' and you just do stuff with them. — Bill Murray

This is not a dress rehearsal; this is your life. — Bill Murray

You can handle just about anything that comes at you out on the road with a believable grin, common sense and whiskey. — Bill Murray

When you did the job, you thought you were just trying to amuse your friends who are all on the job. I'm just trying to make the sound guy laugh, the script supervisor. A movie like 'Caddyshack', I can walk on a golf course and some guy will be screaming entire scenes at me and expecting me to do it word for word with him. It's like, 'Fella, I did that once. I improvised that scene. I don't remember how it goes'. But I'm charmed by it. I'm not like, 'Hey, knock it off'. It's kind of cool. — Bill Murray

I really don't know what's going to come out of my mouth. — Bill Murray

I've got kids and that's important. It's funny, you think that there's an expiration date on them and there just isn't. — Bill Murray