Carell Quotes & Sayings

I'm not good with pickup lines or flirting. I don't have that kind of self-confidence or natural charisma. — Steve Carell

People know where romantic comedies are going. It's not brain surgery to figure out the end of a romantic comedy. — Steve Carell

A healthy body means a healthy mind. You get your heart rate up, and you get the blood flowing through your body to your brain. Look at Albert Einstein. He rode a bicycle. He was also an early student of Jazzercise. You never saw Einstein lift his shirt, but he had a six-pack under there. — Steve Carell

Steve Carell is good. I like him. Who else? Here's another depressing thing: animation has kind of taken over, too. You know, 'Family Guy?' I watch that because the guy is good. — Joe Flaherty

Everyone is flawed and everyone makes mistakes and is culpable. — Steve Carell

I was sort of traumatized by girls in the third grade. Because there was a girl in my third grade class I had a crush on. I bought her a box of Valentine's Day chocolate. And I put it in her cubby with a note that said something like, 'I am deeply in love with you, Your Secret Admirer.' And I didn't sign my name. — Steve Carell

Everyone said to Vincent van Gogh, "You can't be a great painter, you only have one ear." And you know what he said? "I can't hear you. — Steve Carell

My job doesn't define my kids in any way. When we go to places, it's about them and it's about us as a family. I think they're proud of me, but I'm just Dad. — Steve Carell

I've been an 'Office' fan from day one. I knew Steve Carell in Chicago back in the day, so I started watching to support a Chicago guy and immediately got hooked on that show. — Jim O'Heir

Relationships shouldn't be disposable. If there's something worth saving - not always the case, some relationships are irreconcilable - but if there is something that you determine is worth saving, then try to do that. — Steve Carell

It's interesting when you're trying to create a character in animation. It's really a communal effort. — Steve Carell

Once I moved to Chicago and started trying to get acting jobs, I just tended to book more things that were comedically based than anything else. I never had the preconceived notion, 'I will be a comedic actor.' I just thought, 'I'll go into acting and see what kind of work I can get.' — Steve Carell

Different things just strike people differently. And it's so subjective, too. Because what makes one person laugh won't make others laugh. I guess it's kind of checkerboarded. — Steve Carell

Whenever I hear someone describe something as a 'kids movie' or a 'family movie,' it immediately has a negative connotation in my mind because I think, 'Well, as an adult, I wouldn't go see it by myself, because it's purely for children and it holds nothing for me and it's simplistic and it's kind of easy.' — Steve Carell

Whenever you see people talking about how real they are or how normal they are, it seems odd to have that self awareness that you could potentially not be normal. — Steve Carell

Your brain, like your tongue, is a muscle. Practicing thinking by yourself really helps develop your brain, which you need throughout your day. I like to practice my thinking in a darkened room, alone. — Steve Carell

I am always the type of person who is waiting for the other shoe to drop and for it to peter out and end. And if it does that's fine. — Steve Carell

I don't text, I don't have a Blackberry. Literally, I just have a cell phone that I haven't programmed and the whole Bluetooth. No. I don't even have an earpiece for my cell phone. — Steve Carell

I know I'm not a woman's fantasy man; I don't have to uphold this image of male beauty, so that's kind of a relief in a way. — Steve Carell

It's a very familiar type of place where people either go to their house on the lake or they get together in different places. This was a normal, relatable place that I think a lot of people have in their childhood. — Steve Carell

People generally have sex fairly young, and probably younger than they should be having it. — Steve Carell

I look at improvising as a prolonged game of chess. There's an opening gambit with your pawn in a complex game I have with one character, and lots of side games with other characters, and another game with myself - and in each game you make all these tiny, tiny moves that get you to the endgame. — Steve Carell

For the better part of my adult life, I proudly avoided nerd/nimrod/goober status. I was always just cool enough. — Steve Carell

In the United States, there is a restaurant called The Outback Steakhouse, and I could survive in there for several weeks at least, sustaining myself on bloomin' onions and, I'm sure, their legitimate and very Australian cuisine. In the real Outback? I give myself about 14 minutes. — Steve Carell

There's very little you could do to prepare to be a correspondent on 'The Daily Show,' because it's not being a journalist, it's not being an actor. It involves elements of both of those things, but they're not required necessarily as job experience. It's helpful if you know how to improvise, but again, not a requirement. — Steve Carell

Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, we should tell them to plan to be surprised. — Steve Carell

Everybody should be normal. Everybody should be nice. I think they go hand in hand, and that to me is the default setting. — Steve Carell

I always feel so pretentious talking about comedy and deconstructing it. It always feels somehow self-centred to talk about any sort of process. — Steve Carell

In my wildest dreams I never thought - well, I never thought I'd work. — Steve Carell

I wrote Steve Carell's last episode. I think it was a really good episode, but there's always a tension between what's good for the series and what's good for an episode, because the more closure you put on an episode, the more significant feeling it is. — Greg Daniels

You never saw Peter Sellers the actor trying to make you laugh. All he was doing was the character. What I'm saying is that I don't think you should know you're in a movie. I don't like it when actors are winking at the audience and saying, 'Right, isn't this funny? Are you with me?' — Steve Carell

You project a version of yourself to the public to protect and insulate yourself a little bit. Actors come up with a version of themselves in order to protect the real person. — Steve Carell

I think ultimately, when you believe somebody is going through a situation and it's either awkward or ridiculous, but you believe it, that can be funny. — Steve Carell

Do not to be as shy around girls, because they're probably just as shy and just as scared as you are. — Steve Carell

I joined an improv group in college, which was a lot of fun. After I graduated, I moved to Chicago to try to get into the Second City. — Steve Carell

That's an interesting way to put it: an expectation of who you should be. More often than not, it's described as an expectation of who you are. — Steve Carell

I am happily married, and I think I was lucky that success came a little later in my life. It's difficult to handle all the attention when you are a young gun. — Steve Carell

I would like for my kids to at least have some familiarity with who I am: 'It's the man from TV!' — Steve Carell

I think in most relationships that have problems, there's fault on both sides. And in order for it to work, there has to be some common ground that's shared. And it's not just one person making amends. — Steve Carell

Being an action star is all I had ever hoped to be. I ultimately knew I would be an action star. — Steve Carell

I watched all the Academy screeners and I wanted to slit my wrists. Whether they are good or not good, I don't know why you make Foxcatcher? I don't know why you do it. What is it giving anybody except to have Steve Carell put on a rubber nose? — Rob Cohen

Children are very smart, in their own stupid way. A child's brain is like a sponge, and you know how smart sponges are. — Steve Carell

I remember my wife wanted me to go see 'Contagion,' and I was like, 'Oh my God, why would I want to see that movie?' I mean, I'll just have nightmares and it will freak me out. It turned out that I really enjoyed it; I thought it was very well done. — Steve Carell

Because I went from the 'Daily Show' where I was a fake news guy on a fake news show, to 'Bruce Almighty' where I played a news guy, to 'Anchorman' where I played a news guy, now I'm ... yeah, I tend to gravitate towards suits. — Steve Carell

I don't think my kids have to worry too much about me embarrassing them because that's not how I would want to grow up, with wacky dad showing up at school and performing for everyone. — Steve Carell

Style advice? Always wear clothes ... that are ... clean, for starters. An added bonus if it is pressed as well. Unless you are wearing clothes that are supposed to look rumpled. — Steve Carell

Like most people, I have painful memories of trying to fit in as a child. I wore, said, and did pretty much what everyone else did. — Steve Carell

We always spend the summer together. My wife and kids, we always go back to Massachusetts and spend the summer there near where my wife and I both grew up. I wasn't willing to sacrifice the summer to go elsewhere. — Steve Carell

If somebody takes the parking place you were waiting for, I tend to kind of let it roll off my back. Maybe I'm harboring a lot of something and it will all explode somewhere down the road, but I tend to just let it slide off my back. — Steve Carell

Well, on a personal level, I would never want to take on a character who didn't have some redeemable qualities. Even the worst of people, such as Michael Scott in The Office [Carell's character in the US version of the Ricky Gervais sitcom], have some decent human qualities that you can latch onto. — Steve Carell

Divorce is fairly common these days, and I think many times people disregard the emotional impact that divorce has on a couple and a family, because it happens so frequently. — Steve Carell

In my role of agent for Miss Hathaway, I would like to say that she does not answer questions relating to this subject. — Steve Carell

I love Steve Carell and Will Ferrell - they're my heroes. — Daniel Radcliffe

I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious. — Steve Carell

[And on going from character to leading actor] I don't approach anything differently; I just approach it as a character. I'm always astounded at the fact that I've ever played a leading character in anything [Laughs]. And my wife concurs with that, frankly. She always thought I would be, at best, the wacky neighbor on a sitcom, so this is all just a surprise and a joy. — Steve Carell

Sending a handwritten letter is becoming such an anomaly. It's disappearing. My mom is the only one who still writes me letters. And there's something visceral about opening a letter - I see her on the page. I see her in her handwriting. — Steve Carell

I don't do anything to try to change people's perceptions of me. I tend to think that's sort of an ego driven thing. — Steve Carell

Some people just derive great joy from making other people laugh. And I do, but I don't feel like I need to do it 24 hours a day. — Steve Carell

On a daily basis, you're working with Steve Carell; you're not working with Ricky Gervais. You try a line, and you can't be writing for David Brent. You have to be writing for Michael Scott because Steve is Michael Scott. — Greg Daniels

Being a leading man ... that's like saying, 'I want to be astronaut.' That's not going to happen. — Steve Carell

I've thought a lot about success, because it's very strange to me that I've been successful. — Steve Carell

If I'd had a great level of success early on, who knows how I would have responded. I might have been a complete jerk. — Steve Carell

I really choose by what I like, i thought 'Alexander' was a super smart script. Just [costar] Steve [Carell] alone would have been enough. Gosh, I love working with that guy. He's just the best. — Jennifer Garner

I'm a taker in terms of jokes. I love to hear a good joke, but I don't retain jokes. I'm not a good teller of jokes. — Steve Carell

Steve Carell, we've been nodding at each other for years now. — Jane Lynch

I hate hospitals, in my mind they are associated with sickness. — Steve Carell

Nothing to me feels as good as laughing incredibly hard. — Steve Carell

I don't think of myself as funny - I don't fill up a room with my humor ... I would fail miserably as a stand-up comedian. — Steve Carell

My parents had a certain resolve to them that I don't see as so prevalent today. Through good times and bad, they were committed to one another. Their relationship wasn't something to be constantly examined or picked apart. — Steve Carell

Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information. — Steve Carell

My father is Italian, and I never met my paternal grandparents. The family name was 'Caroselli' and it was changed in the mid '50s. I think they wanted to assimilate, which was pretty common, although I love the name 'Caroselli.' — Steve Carell

Is it true that if you don't USE it you LOSE it? — Steve Carell

I don't feel that I have to control every aspect of things that I appear in. You learn a lot performing someone else's writing. — Steve Carell

Steve Carell is the most spectacular ad-lib improviser ever. And just doing a scene with him, it's just one incredible topping himself on every take. — Lucy Punch

We are all facing the end one day or another. I say, live a good and prosperous life, make sure your choices count, make them count. — Steve Carell

Even with college, the reason I wanted to go so badly is because I wanted to major in film. I want to take screenwriting classes and learn more about behind the scenes stuff, because I love people like Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig who are able to write a lot of their own material and be so involved in everything they do. — Miranda Cosgrove

'Anchorman' ... is not grounded in anything. There is absolutely no heart to that movie, which I love. — Steve Carell

I'm not unattractive, but I'm not a matinee idol. I think I have a very non-threatening look - I'm fine, I'm right in the middle. — Steve Carell

Reading a book, watching a movie, going to a play, it's transporting, and very, very exciting. And to be a part of that, creating things with your imagination, whoa. — Steve Carell

I play the baritone horn - which is like a mini tuba, and is the least sexy instrument you can choose, and I generally say I don't play one so I don't have to acknowledge it. I also play fife. — Steve Carell

My maternal grandma was a tough, tough lady and a stern woman, who lost her husband young and raised six kids by herself. She lived in a mining community in Upstate New York and ran a boarding house for miners. She took care of an entire family and miners who lived in the house as well. — Steve Carell

I had, like, two goals in my career: One was to try to get into 'Second City.' When I moved to Chicago, my goal was to try to work at 'Second City.' And beyond that, my goal was to make enough money as an actor to not do anything else but act, not have to go and wait tables again. — Steve Carell

I wasn't a class clown, I never developed this comedic flair as a kid. Even when I decided to become an actor, it was just to be an actor, not necessarily a comedic actor. I wasn't that guy who struck out with women so he became really funny, and that's when the women started to like him. — Steve Carell

Even the most self-confident people, at one point of their lives, felt like outsiders or felt like they weren't being heard or seen or witnessed in some way. — Steve Carell

I ate fiberglass insulation. It wasn't cotton candy like the guy said ... my tummy itches. — Steve Carell

For me, at least, all of my career goals, all of my focus, everything just shifted and the importance was my children, and that's where all the joy came from as well. — Steve Carell

One of the skills I had to learn and become proficient in is kissing a man. I had never kissed a man. Will Smith did it in his movies, so did Jake Gyllenhaal, and I figured it was my time. So it was me and Steve Carell - fantastic. — Dwayne Johnson

There's plenty of room for all sorts of movies and all sorts of comedies, so I never saw that as a competitive thing. I think there's room in the marketplace for everything. — Steve Carell

I don't want to be pretentious about, "yes, I need to move in to the more dramatic roles and express myself and prove to everyone that I'm capable of doing it," it really isn't that, I think that's a bad reason to choose roles. It's more like, who would I be working with and would they be fun to do and entertaining to watch, is it an interesting story or character. — Steve Carell

Well, it might have been if I'd had success earlier in life, but having success that much later meant I was far more grounded when it came. The last few years of my life have just been surreal and after a lifetime of disappointment and heartache and rejection, I still don't believe this is all actually happening. I'm extremely grateful for my success - I just never expect it to last and my motto, if I have one, is just put your head down and do the job. — Steve Carell

From cheesecake on a stick to meat skewers to deep-fried bananas on a stick - there are no plates anymore. In Los Angeles, everything has become a corn dog. Actually, corn dogs still work. But most other food should be stickless. — Steve Carell

Everybody wants to be a Bond villain. That is the coolest. To be able to portray a Bond villain, that is the feather in any actor's cap. — Steve Carell

Steve Carell and Tina Fey are a match made in comedy heaven. They're perfect. — Ben Lyons

Six-year-olds are very wrapped up in their own lives, and that's the way it should be. — Steve Carell

I'm a fun dad, but I don't know if I'm the fun, crazy dad. — Steve Carell

I always wanted to do a comedy, but I wanted to pick the right one. But it came down to working with Steve Carell. I've wanted to work with him since I met him years ago as a kid. — Ryan Gosling

I'm a terrible cook, but I make very good lobster salad. — Nancy Carell

They love 3-D. It's fun to watch a movie in 3-D with your children or with a group of children because you see the kids in front of you from time to time reaching up. You see little hands reaching up to grab things that they think are right there. I think it's remarkable and it does obviously, literally, add another dimension to the movie. — Steve Carell

It's harder when people are playing along, because it's just not as funny. They're trying to be funny, and it sort of cancels out the whole joke. — Steve Carell

In an enclosed space, a camel's breath can change the atmosphere of the room. Not only just the smell, they literally seem to change the atmospheric pressure. It's so disgusting. It's like they have eight stomachs each more rancid then the next and it just comes out of their mouth. — Steve Carell