Matt Damon Quotes & Sayings

Paranoid is what people who are trying to take advantage call you in an effort to get you to drop your guard. — Matt Damon

I never wanted to do the same kind of movies over and over anyway, so my theory on it all is I'm just gonna try and dodge the label and keep doing what I am doing. — Matt Damon

What is your greatest regret?
Not staying in better touch with people who truly mattered to me before they died unexpectedly. — Matt Damon

I'll play Pretty Pretty Princess with you if you just let me watch a little bit of March Madness. — Matt Damon

I think marrying somebody who's not a celebrity, it just takes a lot of the pressure off. — Matt Damon

All parents are trying to balance. Look, I'm lucky in the sense that I can control my hours. I can choose my jobs, and not everybody has that choice. But I definitely, it's a family decision every time I take a job. — Matt Damon

Now I feel I have an unspoken deal with the paparazzi: 'I won't do anything publicly interesting if you agree not to follow me.' — Matt Damon

You know, a one-term president with some balls who actually got stuff done would have been, in the long run of the country, much better. — Matt Damon

The values that I have are the values I was raised with, from where I'm from, which is a middle-class place. So that informs everything about me, my politics and all that stuff. I mean, politically, I vote against my own self-interest at every election. I actively ask these people to raise my taxes. — Matt Damon

If we listen to the better angels of our nature, there are creative and good solutions to serious problems. — Matt Damon

I started 'The Rainmaker' in August 1996, and I've been working consistently ever since. It's not like I had some grand plan; I keep getting offered jobs so good I can't say no. — Matt Damon

The director's in charge of every single decision [in film]. It's a dictatorship.It's a benevolent dictatorship, but it's true. It's every single shot. There's nothing arbitrary. — Matt Damon

It's very frustrating [ to work under director's control], not just because you're getting rejected constantly, but also because you're at a time in your life where you have an enormous amount of creative energy, and there's no way to express it. That's why a lot of people get into drinking or drugs or whatever. — Matt Damon

I've been left alone, even by the paparazzi, because what sells is sex and scandal. Absent that, they really don't have much interest in you. I'm still married, still working, still happy. — Matt Damon

I've passed on a lot of huge-money jobs. Money doesn't enter into the decision-making. If I do a big blockbuster, it's about how big an audience you'll get and where you can take them. — Matt Damon

It's just better to be yourself than to try to be some version of what you think the other person wants. — Matt Damon

There are people who just collect a bunch of footage and then edit it later. You definitely feel more protected when a director is moving on when you've actually felt something happen and you know they're watching intently. — Matt Damon

Liberty is a soul's right to breathe. — Matt Damon

I need to know if she [Sarah Palin] thinks dinosaurs were here four thousand years ago ... because she's going to have the nuclear code. — Matt Damon

As actors, we react to the material that's out there, and I probably just react more strongly to things that I feel will have some social value. — Matt Damon

Now that I have kids, I'm probably more overprotective than I've ever been. My wife's nickname for me is 'red alert.' I sometimes check just to see if the kids are breathing. But I try not to be a helicopter parent. — Matt Damon

My parents divorced when I was young but I was brought up in two really loving households. I didn't have a contentious relationship with my mom or dad. — Matt Damon

It's usually the exact same three things which are, the Scripts, the Director and the Role those are the three things I look for and really any two of them, If I get two of them that's usually enough, but definitely those are the things I look for. — Matt Damon

I'm not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Those guys walk into a room and the room changes. I think there's something more ... not average, but everyman about me. — Matt Damon

I think what's important for kids to know is that your decisions here on earth matter, your behavior matters and how you treat other people matters. — Matt Damon

Oftentimes when I'm deciding to do a movie, the main thing is really, that I look at, is the director. I've come to feel that more and more. The more movies I've done and the older I've - the more experience I have, I always knew it was a director's medium, and I always said that. — Matt Damon

Life is on the wire. The rest is just waiting. — Matt Damon

I've gotten much better at multi-tasking. It's hard, though. But, writing a script is not totally focused. You're taking little breaks, all the time. If a kid runs in, you give 'em a horsey ride. It's a pretty fluid process. — Matt Damon

I'm becoming far more interested in just functionality and making sure my body is as strong as it can be so I can swing my kids around and not worry about aches and pains. — Matt Damon

If there's an idea I think is really good and I feel like I can write it, then I'll do it. — Matt Damon

I think it's still hard for me to turn down work if it's really good because for so many years I was so desperate to get a job and couldn't and so it's kind of an anathema for me to turn down work. — Matt Damon

Please find out what you can do to make a difference. Take five minutes to educate yourself on an issue you didn't know about before. Then tell somebody else. — Matt Damon

If anybody wanted to photograph my life, they'd get bored in a day. — Matt Damon

People do things in the names of good, and in the name of ideals, but the world isn't that simple. So they end up doing things that aren't necessarily good. Even if they think they're doing the right thing, but when viewed from a different perspective they can look barbaric and crazy. — Matt Damon

If you are writing a story and trying to draw an audience to come and hear you tell it, it's got to in some way relate to them. Who wants to come and hear about your specific problems? It's not therapy - it's supposed to be a communal piece of entertainment. — Matt Damon

If your movies don't perform, they just stop calling you. — Matt Damon

Fame is really strange. One day you're not famous, and then the next day you are, and the odd thing is that you know intellectually that nothing in the world is different. What mattered to you yesterday are the same things that matter today, and the rules all still apply - yet everyone looks at you differently. — Matt Damon

The only sci-fi movie that I've ever been offered that, had circumstances been different, I would have definitely done, was 'Avatar.' And I literally couldn't do it because of my schedule. But listening to James Cameron talk about 'Avatar' was so fascinating. Because he literally invented the world in his mind - and it literally existed. — Matt Damon

Part of the American ethos is that you want to leave something better for your kids than you had and I know that my parents felt that way and I know that my grandparents felt that way and everybody worked hard so that their kids had a better chance. I just don't want to be the first generation that doesn't do that. — Matt Damon

I think it's something that the citizenry needs to be vigilant about - participating in democracy, and that includes issues like what's going on and how much secrecy and transparency there should be. That's an on-going thing - in a democracy you want checks and balances and oversight, but you need a covert agency to protect the country. It's a very tricky balance and I think it changes as the world changes and I think we all need to be mindful of that. — Matt Damon

Eventually stardom is going to go away from me. It goes away from everybody and all you have in the end is to be able to look back and like the choices you made. — Matt Damon

I started really young, like 12 or 13, and then I started doing school plays. We had a really good drama department, so the kind of drama-geek stigma wasn't really there in my high school. — Matt Damon

If you can't help people, then what is the point of being successful? — Matt Damon

The ideal life is you don't sell a single magazine, nobody's interested, but they want to come see your movie. Because that gives you true freedom. — Matt Damon

There are people who appear in the magazines and I don't know who they are. I've never seen anything they've done and their careers are over already. They're famous for maybe 10 minutes. Real careers, I think, take a long time to unfold. — Matt Damon

The first time I smoked was at home with my mother and stepfather; they were like, If you are going to do this, we'd rather you did this with us. — Matt Damon

It's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. — Matt Damon

It's an objective fact, that if you want to solve some of these huge, kind of bigger problems of extreme poverty, you have to include the women. They're the ones who will get it done. — Matt Damon

As somebody who makes his living in the movie business and wants to contribute to it, I think that the best chance I have of doing that is just consistently working with great directors. — Matt Damon

The thing that I like about Germany is that Germans are so much like us. It's not like going to some other countries, where the differences are overwhelming and you walk around in a fog. Germans are so similar to Americans. — Matt Damon

If I had a bucket list, I'd say raising my four girls to be strong, good women would be No. 1, — Matt Damon

I didn't grow up with great privilege, nor did I grow up wanting for anything. I was a middle-class kid and, relative to the rest of the world, that's great wealth. — Matt Damon

Bond is part of the system. He's an imperialist and a misogynist, and he laughs at killing people, and he sits there slugging martinis. It'll never be the same thing as this, because Bourne is a guy who is against the establishment, who is paranoid and on the run. I just think fundamentally they're just very different things. — Matt Damon

The only way I can describe it-at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows like five times? Everything is full; it's just full all the time. — Matt Damon

I found myself getting more publicly shy when the gala events and big crowds started. Some people embrace it. To me, it's not worth enough to risk my private life being public. — Matt Damon

Some people get into this business and they're so afraid to lose anything. They try to protect their position like clinging to a beachhead. These actors end up making really safe choices. I never wanted to go that route. If I go down, I'm going down swinging. — Matt Damon

Before the days of video village a director should stand right next to the camera, look with his naked eye and if he sees something that is real to him, he'd look up at the [camera] operator and if he gives the look to indicate he'd seen it to, then you print and you'd move on. — Matt Damon

I'd had people say, 'You'll enjoy being famous for a week, and you'll never enjoy it again'. But I don't think I had that week. I may have been working and missed that moment. — Matt Damon

You will never solve poverty without solving water and sanitation. — Matt Damon

It's intuitive in terms of when I read a piece of material or I hear about a project. I'm a writer, so I've written movies. I've read at this point thousands and thousands and thousands of screenplays. So if something gets me, then I don't ignore that. — Matt Damon

The whole thrust of theatre is different, just because the writing is so much more respected in a play. Whereas in movies - and having been the writer, I can say from experience - the writer is lower down on the food chain. — Matt Damon

We're here for such a short time. When your great-great-grandkids study history, don't you want them to be proud that you were part of the solution? — Matt Damon

The very first big photo shoot I ever did was with Bruce Weber. I couldn't believe this guy was taking my picture, so when he told me to get in the bathtub, I just did. It's only now, looking back, that I realise, you don't have to do everything people tell you. — Matt Damon

I don't see as many movies as I used to. Or, I should say, as many movies as I would like to. — Matt Damon

Most films and directors lose their nerve and want to indicate [emotions] a bit more, to show that their story is clear. I'm not saying that's a good thing; as an actor its anathema to good acting, but to have someone with the confidence to say that should I be utterly natural and minimalist is great. — Matt Damon

Right before 'The Bourne Identity' came out, I hadn't been offered a movie in a year. — Matt Damon

I grew up in and the teachers. I think I was very lucky. I think I had a lot of social capital, and so when I found myself in this position of influence, I just - then I started to engage a bit with some of the problems in the world and realize that I could actually have an impact. — Matt Damon

I honestly if I get a vacation I'm gonna go and sit on my couch in New York cause that's the one place I haven't been for a very long time. — Matt Damon

I'm always cautious about overstepping any boundaries. At the end of the day, it's a director's medium, and if they don't want to hear from me I just step back. — Matt Damon

I believe a solid, really strong middle-class is the key to making the country in the best way. — Matt Damon

I think what makes a good actor's director is the same thing that makes a good director. Acting is just one of the trades necessary to make a movie. — Matt Damon

Our problem is civil obedience — Matt Damon

I usually play characters that are a lot different than me. I mean, I'm never in a fight in a movie and if I'm in them, I'm usually losing. — Matt Damon

I've been really lucky. I'll completely forget that I'm a celebrity. And then something will happen, and I'll go, 'Oh, right.' — Matt Damon

I fell in love with a civilian. Not an actress and not a famous actress at that. Because then the attention doesn't double - it grows exponentially. Because then suddenly everybody wants to be in your bedroom. But I don't really give them anything. — Matt Damon

All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it. — Matt Damon

Sending our kids in my family to private school was a big, big, big deal. And it was a giant family discussion. But it was a circular conversation, really, because ultimately we don't have a choice. I mean, I pay for a private education and I'm trying to get the one that most matches the public education that I had, but that kind of progressive education no longer exists in the public system. It's unfair. — Matt Damon

When you have a child, your relationship with every child in the world changes. It's like you're in a club you didn't know existed before a child came into your life. I believe you should make the world more beautiful for all children in any way that you can. — Matt Damon

For Ripley I learned to play some songs on the piano, and I never really played them again. — Matt Damon

I can't think of any more important value to instill in our children than the desire to help others. I feel strongly about setting an example for them. Real problems can be solved by the next generation if we instill in them the right values. — Matt Damon

My wife is my soul mate. I can't imagine being without her. — Matt Damon

If Brad Pitt walked down the street, cars would crash into each other. I'm really lucky not to have to deal with that. — Matt Damon

My mother is a professor of early childhood education. When I was two she would say she knew I was going to be an actor. — Matt Damon

Any moron with a pack of matches can start a fire. Raining down sulfur takes a huge level of endurance. Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, next to soccer. — Matt Damon

We live in a world, it's very hard for Americans to understand that every 20 seconds a kid dies, a kid under the age of five, right, dies somewhere on the Earth because of lack of access to clean water and sanitation. Every 20 seconds that happens on our planet. It's just very hard for us to relate to. — Matt Damon

You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library. — Matt Damon

And you know, we were talking about American identity, and where we've come from and where we are and where we're headed. We knew that we wanted to have a hopeful ending and we wanted it to be pro-community, and a pro-democracy type of movie. — Matt Damon

Our kids are growing up with more privilege than we had; that's true for most of my friends in L.A. I don't know any actor who grew up with any particular privilege, so everyone wrestles with this. And I think, a lot of times, it's about being patient with your kids. — Matt Damon

It's pretty easy to kind of lose your way. Having kids is really helpful. They kind of disabuse you of the notion of your greatness pretty quickly. — Matt Damon

The better the actor, the less you know about his life. I mean, nobody's better than De Niro and you don't know anything about him, right? — Matt Damon

There are a lot of things that I really question - the legality of the drone strikes, these NSA revelations. Jimmy Carter came out and said we don't live in a democracy. That's a little intense when an ex-president says that. So you know, he's got some explaining to do, particularly for a constitutional law professor. — Matt Damon

History is change happening one person at a time. — Matt Damon

Some people just see the glory and they don't want to know about the story. — Matt Damon

If you work at something, you get better at it. — Matt Damon

I should have done it years ago. It's amazing I didn't even want cigarettes anymore. — Matt Damon

Clean water is only as far away as the nearest tap, and there are taps everywhere. There's a faucet everywhere. But the reality is, the water in our toilets is cleaner than the water that most people are drinking. — Matt Damon

Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage — Matt Damon

Generally, the bigger the budget, the less interesting the characters become. — Matt Damon

You don't know about real loss, 'cause it only occurs when you've loved something more than you love yourself. And I doubt you've ever dared to love anybody that much. — Matt Damon

As for poker, I've stayed away from that, even though when I was in Vegas for Ocean's Eleven, I would get accosted by these guys begging me to play. They just want to take my money. They see me, think 'actor' and see some easy money. — Matt Damon