Bryan Cranston Quotes & Sayings

I don't think life owes me anything and the business doesn't owe me anything. The only way to approach it is by working hard and loving what you do. If you do that and have faith, maybe you will get lucky. I mean that sincerely and specifically. I truly believe that no professional career in the arts is capable without a healthy dose of luck. — Bryan Cranston

As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are. — Bryan Cranston

Love is not as important as good health. You cannot be in love if you're not healthy. You can't appreciate it. — Bryan Cranston

I appreciate my role as an actor much more after I direct because it's just easier. — Bryan Cranston

The greatest thing about youth is that you're not yet battle-weary, so you'll try anything. — Bryan Cranston

People would love to be rich, but they're looking for the easy way. Who wouldn't want to win the lottery? Just to score. — Bryan Cranston

The hardest work that actors have done, including myself, is on poorly written scripts. And when you first start out you do anything. I did a lot of crap. I did more crap than I can tell you. But you did it because you needed the money. You have to pay for your pictures and resumes, and classes and insurance and food like everybody else. In those days if it was crap you just didn't put it on your resume. — Bryan Cranston

Mixing humor and politics is something that works. — Bryan Cranston

I wish Americans thought more like Europeans when it comes to money and work. They take time off, they do what they love. We think work is the most valued commodity. Really the most valued commodity is time. — Bryan Cranston

I admit, I do a lot of projects, but it's because I'm in a position now where I'm reading a lot more scripts and plays and things, and I'm really listening to offers and trying to think what I want to do at any given time. — Bryan Cranston

I've got a whole mantel just waiting for those awards to come, a whole big mantel. There's just so much available space. I've got the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling, all ready to shine on them. I dust it off every day. — Bryan Cranston

Console the failure, but nurture the hunger. — Bryan Cranston

Every experience feeds an actor, and I've learned that depression is all around us. — Bryan Cranston

Part of an actor's job is to draw up a back story. — Bryan Cranston

That's the reason you want to become a star as an actor, to be able to have more control of your destiny. — Bryan Cranston

This self-congratulatory notion Americans have that their country is Number One is borne of ignorance and bad manners. — Bryan Cranston

When actors first come up, you're auditioning for everything - you're trying to sniff it out like a pig with a truffle and you would do anything! — Bryan Cranston

Because we had known the good times, I think my brother and I felt the loss more acutely. My father's waning presence, his chronic absence, his disappearance. Now he was just a memory. — Bryan Cranston

When you're an actor in grade school, high school, college, whatever, you start to realize what you're really good at, what you're kinda good at, what you're okay at, and you start to compartmentalize. But if you know yourself and what you're capable of, it's just a matter of opportunity. — Bryan Cranston

I intend to do more directing TV. — Bryan Cranston

What used to frustrate me going into an audition was that some inexperienced, lesser casting people would think that actors are acting only when they're speaking. — Bryan Cranston

I'm pretty handy! I do a lot of things around the house, and I actually enjoy it. — Bryan Cranston

There's this notion that in order to draw attention and to be considered for roles I want to be considered for, you need a certain amount of notoriety. — Bryan Cranston

I look like everyone. — Bryan Cranston

It's mind-altering when you slip into someone else's shoes. That's psychedelic, man. — Bryan Cranston

We've been trained since kindergarten: Be nice, be kind, share, put on a smile. So we're conditioned to squash our natural selfish instincts, and that's the right thing for society. — Bryan Cranston

What's great about well-written material is, if you can shock with justifiable actions, that's the best. — Bryan Cranston

It used to be that people would watch TV shows because they knew the characters would stay the same. Whether it's Archie Bunker or it's Thomas Magnum you watch it because it's like, 'I'm comfortable, this is the same guy.' — Bryan Cranston

If you have a screaming angry director, everyone else will be panicked as well. — Bryan Cranston

When I was a kid there were a very select few channels - programmes had to have more of a large appeal and they just didn't offer very much. Now you have a situation where the television world has expanded and there's hundreds of channels. — Bryan Cranston

I'm a big fan of 'Mad Men.' — Bryan Cranston

When everyone has high expectation for you, it can attack your insecurities. — Bryan Cranston

To me, character in a person is judged by the decisions that are made under pressure. — Bryan Cranston

Money has never been my primary goal. — Bryan Cranston

Actors, writers, directors - that triumvirate of creativity - we have to rely and trust each other to be able to get to the final product. — Bryan Cranston

If you have a level of expectation in your life that you have to be a quote-unquote star, whatever that means, you might be setting yourself up for failure. — Bryan Cranston

I think the best-written films or television series have a measure of the opposite of what they are. — Bryan Cranston

I don't have spare time. — Bryan Cranston

Pot always just made me sleepy. — Bryan Cranston

Ever since I stopped worrying about finances, I've made more money than I ever thought I'd make in my life. — Bryan Cranston

When you play a non-fiction character it is more responsibility than when you are playing a fiction character because that person lived, and you do want to pay respect to that. — Bryan Cranston

Any kind of civil rights oppression is wrong. — Bryan Cranston

I have talked to stunt drivers all my life, 32 years of talking to stunt drivers. There's a craziness to them. — Bryan Cranston

The TV business is like the produce section of the market. Today everything is fresh and glistening and firm. And tomorrow, when they find a bruise on you, they toss you out. — Bryan Cranston

Actors basically are the type of person that with three seconds left, we want the ball. Give us the shot to make it or miss it. We'll take the lumps if we miss it, but we want the chance to get the glory. — Bryan Cranston

I have a lovely family who supports me and it's great. — Bryan Cranston

There's so many things that can go wrong in the execution of a project like a television show or a movie, so many little elements, any number of things, all the way to marketing - like they could market it poorly and nobody finds it and down it goes. — Bryan Cranston

It's in our nature to be intrigued. We're putting the bread crumb not in your mouth but close to your mouth. You reach a little bit, and that's why it works. — Bryan Cranston

My passion is becoming involved in good work, whether that means as an actor or writer or director or producer or all - that is not as important to me. — Bryan Cranston

There are far more talented people doing voice work than I. — Bryan Cranston

Our whole society is instantaneous. — Bryan Cranston

I have a bad habit of inserting my ideas into shots and things. I don't know, I don't hold back on suggesting things, but I don't have any connection to what actually happens, so I'll make a suggestion on something and then just let it go. — Bryan Cranston

I'm not crazy about being out of control, and I get emotional when things are unclean. When things are out of order. When things are messy. Because I lived in a mess as a child. — Bryan Cranston

My dear friend Aaron Paul, I love you so much. — Bryan Cranston

Gay and lesbian couples should have the right to experience the joys of marriage and family. — Bryan Cranston

But the only way to get lucky is to be prepared for luck to find you. — Bryan Cranston

I enjoy storytelling. I like to write it, I like to direct it, I like to act in it, I like to produce it. I like to be around storytellers. That's what excites me. — Bryan Cranston

You get addicted to emotions. Our endorphins kick in and it's like a high. On the low end you might love roller coasters. On the high end you might be a bank robber or something. — Bryan Cranston

Any performer would love to have the opportunity to be able to express themselves in many different areas. If you feel confident in those areas, you would hope to have the opportunity to do them, whether it's drama, comedy, musical, or whatever your interests are. — Bryan Cranston

I can tell you for sure: people who are at their peak right now will not sustain that. You can't. It's against the law of nature. — Bryan Cranston

Something's happened in our society which I don't think is beneficial, and that's that you see the public being fed box-office news. Newscasts now, every local station - I've been traveling around the country a lot, and you see the local news, and they give box-office reports. — Bryan Cranston

When you're directing an ongoing series, the tone has already been set. So a director will come in and fulfill that tone - reinforce the characters and their behavior. The challenge is to find unique ways that you can visually tell the story while keeping the established tone and the pace and the characters. — Bryan Cranston

You don't want to be a Kardashian. — Bryan Cranston

I learned long ago to focus on things you can control and don't even pay attention to things you don't. — Bryan Cranston

When 'Malcolm in the Middle' was over, I was looking for a drama more than a comedy ... but if it was a comedy that came up, it would have to be as well-written as 'Malcolm' was, and it would have to be a different kind of character than I played on that show. That's harder to come by. In drama, there were more opportunities, more options for me, and when I read ('Breaking Bad'), it was just, 'Good night, Nurse! I'm going after this sucker!' — Bryan Cranston

At my age, I don't think anyone is untouched by cancer. — Bryan Cranston

Being a day player, period, is one of the hardest things you can do as an actor. — Bryan Cranston

What's great about comedy, obviously, is that you set up a situation that people assume one thing and then you break the assumption. That's basically the backbone to comedy. You set up a situation, let people make an assumption, and then you break the assumption. — Bryan Cranston

I'm telling you, until I shaved my head, I never realized how much heat is lost through the top of the head. I walk out in winter and it feels like I have an ice pack on my head. Unbelievable. — Bryan Cranston

The imagination is part of the arsenal that actors draw from. — Bryan Cranston

My goal has always been to be a working actor. — Bryan Cranston

My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don't think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn't be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world. — Bryan Cranston

I don't really relax. When I sleep, I relax. — Bryan Cranston

If something is well-written, it has a chance to be good and if it's not well-written, it will not be good. It could even become popular, but it won't be good. — Bryan Cranston

Love between two adults is always conditional. You can fall out of love because you are able to fall in love. — Bryan Cranston

What's interesting is a man with no facial hair is less intimidating than a man with facial hair, and a man who is bald is more intimidating than a man with hair. — Bryan Cranston

I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me. — Bryan Cranston

It's up to the actor to make sure they don't get typecast. — Bryan Cranston

The best teacher is experience. Find the educational in every situation. — Bryan Cranston

I enjoy doing comedy for the fact that you go to work and you laugh. That's a good combination. — Bryan Cranston

I think if you believe in past lives, I must have been an extremely deprived being. I must have been mistreated, beaten, and forced into indentured servitude because this life has just been phenomenal. — Bryan Cranston

I think it's not a question of why, more a question of why not. — Bryan Cranston

Hollywood has known this for quite a while: Cable is the place to go because they truly have a supportive network and they want to do things that cannot be seen on broadcast. That stimulates the writer-producer. Cable is king. — Bryan Cranston

It's like a dance, to choreograph a fight is like a dance. It's very specific. You have to carefully plan it out. Because if someone gets hurt, then we didn't do our job, someone screwed up. The fight choreographers and the actors involved, we messed up somewhere. — Bryan Cranston

It's funny, I do try to maintain health. I started doing Bikram yoga which is that hothouse yoga, the 105 degrees yoga for 90 minutes. It's great, you purge out all the sweat and you're drinking water. — Bryan Cranston

With craziness, you can't predict it. There's very little defense you can have on craziness. — Bryan Cranston

I think, and I mean this sincerely, I was raised humbly. We were a lower middle income family and a household that was scrimping by at times. We were watching the dollar, stretching the dollar, and coupons. It was all those things. — Bryan Cranston

I will pursue something that I love -- and hopefully become good at it, instead of pursuing something that I'm good at -- but don't love. — Bryan Cranston

Bad for the sake of bad is boring to me and not believable. — Bryan Cranston

If you're a person who complains about everything all the time, then you're just the boy who cried 'wolf.' But if you do it on occasion and about the right reasons, then people listen. — Bryan Cranston

You need to tell the truth to the audience, or they will throw a brick through the TV. They'll turn you off. — Bryan Cranston

I'm just a big boy, I'm still just playing cowboys and Indians and astronaut and baseball player and all that stuff that I used to play as a kid. — Bryan Cranston

It doesn't matter if you're good. If you're just good, you won't succeed. If you have patience and persistence and talent and that's it, you will not have a successful career as an actor. The elusive thing you need is luck. — Bryan Cranston

I have some anger issues. — Bryan Cranston

I've done more crap than I care to remember. I really have. 'Airwolf.' 'Murder, She Wrote.' 'Amazon Women on the Moon.' But you learn from all these bad shows. What you don't want to do and what you don't want to be involved with. — Bryan Cranston

I want to be able to experience everything. I want to experience being a husband, experience being a father, experience, maybe, hopefully, someday being a grandfather, and all those things. I want that experience. When I die, I want to be exhausted. — Bryan Cranston

There's boldness in being assertive; there's strength and confidence. — Bryan Cranston

The only thing that we as actors really can control is to be able to say 'yes' or 'no' to the material. — Bryan Cranston

Luck is a component that a lot of people in the arts sometimes fail to recognise: that you can have talent, perseverance, patience, but without luck you will not have a successful career. — Bryan Cranston

In order to be an actor you really have to be one of those types of people who are risk-takers and have what is considered an actor's arrogance, which is not to say an arrogance in your personal life. But you have to be the type of person who wants the ball with seconds left in the game. — Bryan Cranston