Malkovich John Quotes & Sayings

There's a reason screens are only this thick. — John Malkovich

I admire sensible, kind people. They're not often famous. — John Malkovich

I'm not a very skeptical person. — John Malkovich

I'm supposed to be a pretty good theater actor. — John Malkovich

I lost seventy pounds eating nothing but Jello for 4 months. But of course there is great variety in the colors! I think, if I remember correctly, it's 230 calories for a whole bowl. Maybe 270? In the 5th month, I added fruit. — John Malkovich

I've permitted myself to learn and to fail with some regularity. And that is probably the one thing I was given, and that I'm still grateful for. — John Malkovich

I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it. — John Malkovich

In New York in the Forties or Fifties, everybody's in a suit, an overcoat and a hat. — John Malkovich

We have a tendency to think everyone's idiotic and everyone's only doing something idiotic, and the world is controlled by a not-so-secret group of morons. There's great truth in that, I suppose, but then it's also not true. — John Malkovich

Even though I wanted to be John Malkovich or Sean Penn when I was a kid, mostly I was a music nerd. — Justin Kirk

Along with the good qualities, if someone isn't vulnerable I can't be around them to a certain extent. And I don't mean vulnerable to me or vulnerable to me in a sexual way. I just mean vulnerable, period. — John Malkovich

Most films, it doesn't matter if you see them or not. — John Malkovich

Well, I like to have fun at work. — John Malkovich

A dog that has rabies probably will do things it wouldn't do if it didn't have rabies. But that doesn't change the fact that it has rabies. — John Malkovich

Of course it's trivial, but then most things are. — John Malkovich

Most of the women that I like have a haunted quality - they're sort of like women who live in a haunted house by themselves. — John Malkovich

I prefer to conduct my life based on how I treat people. — John Malkovich

I always liked clothes; since I was very, very young, I was interested. I studied costume as part of my theatre education. — John Malkovich

There will be people who hate everything you do. And some people will really love it. But that's not really different from the people who really hate it. — John Malkovich

I'm more comfortable with whatever's wrong with me than my father was whenever he felt he failed or didn't measure up to the standard he set. — John Malkovich

I don't remember my life before I had children. — John Malkovich

You have to do things people see or you don't get to do anything. — John Malkovich

I never really did a western western. — John Malkovich

I think with actors, if you just don't set about trying to crush their confidence immediately, you're usually OK. — John Malkovich

Some people die before their time so that others can live. It's a cornerstone of civilization. — John Malkovich

I'm a little bit of a fabric lunatic. — John Malkovich

Where women are concerned, the rule is never to go out with anyone better dressed than you. — John Malkovich

I don't want to be boring. But that's not always easy. — John Malkovich

And may the best of you - for it will only be the best of you, and even then only in the rarest and briefest moments - succeed in framing that most basic of questions, 'how do we live?' — John Malkovich

You can't take a play someone has directed and do whatever you want with it. — John Malkovich

Theater is so ephemeral, and I love that. — John Malkovich

I loved working on Of Mice and Men. It was a wonderful group of people. John Malkovich is to me one of the best actors around right now-and a lot of fun to work with. — Sherilyn Fenn

Utopia means elsewhere. — John Malkovich

I know I have a fairly strong feminine side. I find myself really distanced from male behavior. — John Malkovich

It never occurred to me to be an actor. — John Malkovich

Some directors expect you to do everything; write, be producer, psychiatrist. Some just want you to die in a tragic accident during the shooting so they can get the insurance. — John Malkovich

My first acting class was taught by a little known playwright, David Mamet, who then cast me in my first play, opposite John Malkovich. — John Mahoney

I don't have a great intellect, and I can't compete with people who do. I feel certain things. And all I know, and all I can do, is what I feel. — John Malkovich

Scary monsters are like Hula Hoops. They come in and out of fashion. — John Malkovich

Even if you do succeed most people wouldn't notice anyway. — John Malkovich

I don't mind what I play, really. — John Malkovich

I don't like things too overstated in the cut or too perfect. — John Malkovich

I probably have more female friends than any man I've ever met. What I like about them is that almost always they're generally mentally tougher, and they're better listeners, and they're more capable of surviving things. And most of the women that I like have a haunted quality - they're sort of like women who live in a haunted house all by themselves. — John Malkovich

With acting it's your neck up there in the end. And if you think the director can't help you it's one thing. But if you feel they're reining you in when they need to be giving you some rope, or vice versa, then I just don't tolerate that. — John Malkovich

As an actor there are no drawbacks. — John Malkovich

Nothing you do particularly matters. But I'm not sure that's a great excuse for doing it poorly. — John Malkovich

I think when I went to psychoanalysis, I actually believed that people said what they meant. This was my whole problem. — John Malkovich

There are many, many benefits to being known for whatever it is you do. To deny that would be sort of asinine and vulgar. — John Malkovich

I'd hate to see any film I'm involved in fail, especially artistically but also business-wise. — John Malkovich

I think people seem to sort of associate me with danger. And I don't see that at all. — John Malkovich

The theater is so disappointing, really, that it's hard to go again and again. It's just too heartbreaking. I'd rather watch football or play a game or read. — John Malkovich

My father was a very contradictory man. — John Malkovich

I'm a huge fan of John Malkovich and Josh Brolin, and Michael Shannon has got to be one of my favorite actors. — John Gallagher Jr.

I just start with a pencil and paper. I don't want something too trendy, too fashion-forward. I don't want to make something I consider a regular person couldn't wear with blue jeans. But I don't want to make something that other people make, either - like a skinny black suit in a shiny material that you can buy anywhere. — John Malkovich

I am inspired by the appearance of a bohemian of the new millennium. — John Malkovich

I don't care what other people think. I don't think it matters. — John Malkovich

Fashion is chaotic, and it can be an aggravation, too, but it is at its best when it allows you to express yourself. — John Malkovich

'Secretariat' was such a magnificent animal, unbelievably beautiful and powerful. It's always nice to see something that close to perfection, a reason to celebrate. — John Malkovich

It's a little bit hard to have personal things subject to public scrutiny, and it's a pressure that other people aren't under, but then they're under a lot of pressures that we're not under. — John Malkovich

I wasn't really raised to be the type of person to have doubts. — John Malkovich

I don't mind tracksuits. At the track. — John Malkovich

I have probably four or five male friends who have a real strong masculine side but some degree of a feminine side, too. They're pretty rare, whereas I think women with a masculine side are much less rare. — John Malkovich

Well, I design costumes because I started with the theater in Chicago, but somehow a few lines just sort of fell to me to do it. And I studied it in school and I always liked it. — John Malkovich

I always wanted to be fashionable. — John Malkovich

There's no worse feeling in the world than realizing the play you've directed doesn't work. — John Malkovich

It's tough to figure out how do we compete in Europe and North America, when obviously a living wage for us is very different than a living wage in Indonesia. — John Malkovich

You have to play your characters, not like them. — John Malkovich

And if you say a word about this over the radio, the next wings you see will belong to the flies buzzing over your rotting corpse. — John Malkovich

Most filmmakers' entire body of knowledge is of other movies. When they describe things, they describe them in relation to other movies. That's why we have so many cyclical movies that look like other movies. But I'm not cynical. I even go to some of those movies. — John Malkovich

You can be a mason and build 50 buildings, but it doesn't mean you can design one. — John Malkovich

People get up, they go to work, they have their lives, but you'll never see the headlines say, 'Six billion people got along rather well today.' You'll have the headline about the 30 people who shot each other. — John Malkovich

If you're too smart it can limit you because you spend so much time thinking that you don't do anything. — John Malkovich

I was a very good baseball player and football player as a kid. — John Malkovich

Sigmund Freud said we act out our own dreams, but if you are only an actor you are not acting out your own dream. You are simply participating in someone else's dream. — John Malkovich

I brought my first fall/winter line to New York, and it was confiscated by U.S. Customs. They asked, 'What is the value of this?' I said, 'I'm not so good with existential questions.' — John Malkovich

I haven't physically attacked anyone in a couple of years. — John Malkovich

I don't throw things or yell. — John Malkovich

For a while I wanted to be a professional baseball pitcher, and then I wanted to be a musician and then sometimes I think I'd like to start a store for gift-wrapping Christmas presents ... But I feel I could do most things I set my mind to, except mechanical things, I'm not very good at that. — John Malkovich

I grew up in the Midwest, quite far from any ocean or any beach, a million miles. I think for kids who grew up where I did, the idea of California, surfing and beach life was so exotic and glamorous. — John Malkovich

One of the great things that you should never do that I learned from John Malkovich is to never judge your characters. — Jeremy Piven

My father could be very distancing. My clearest memory is of him squatting, watering plants for hours and hours at a time, completely silent. He was very self-contained; my mother was more outgoing and chatty and social. I'm certainly more like her. — John Malkovich

When you think of how history is revealed, we know certain things to be facts at certain periods of time, which turn out not to be so factual as time marches on. — John Malkovich

I know fashion can be intensely goofy, but it is something I've always taken pretty seriously. — John Malkovich

I think probably when I was little, after my brother turned on me, I just had to play by myself or with myself. I've always done that. I think either it's some kind of weirdly competitive streak or it takes my mind off whatever's bothering me. — John Malkovich

People always say life is short. I've never been convinced of that - mine seems to have a tendency to go on and on. — John Malkovich

I don't think my parents know what I do. — John Malkovich

You can't work in the movies. Movies are all about lighting. Very few filmmakers will concentrate on the story. You get very little rehearsal time, so anything you do onscreen is a kind of speed painting. — John Malkovich

Reviews are destructive by their very nature. — John Malkovich

I have driven school buses, sold egg rolls and painted houses, and I have often wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn't gone into acting. Mind you, it's a great life, going around pretending you're other people and getting paid ridiculous sums of money for it. — John Malkovich

I was never a fanatical movie person. — John Malkovich

My father was an exceptionally strong influence on me. — John Malkovich

It's not a gift of mine, but one given to me, to be able to criticise myself and not be crushed, by myself or by others. — John Malkovich

I have at times spoken with my peers and the head of the actors' union about why we're not paid when we appear in, say, a 'TMZ' production, but there seems to be no real interest in combatting it. — John Malkovich

I'm not a control maniac. — John Malkovich

I can see how, given a certain degree of sensitivities, proclivities and rage, I could have ended up differently. — John Malkovich

I like very much to do movies. — John Malkovich

I think I was born at a time when an American male had so many advantages and opportunities that weren't available to men before or after, just a very brief period. — John Malkovich

I don't really have a comprehension of being a public figure. — John Malkovich

I've always been an avid reader. Everyone in my family read a lot. Considering we were from a little town, we were pretty literate. — John Malkovich

All you have is the writer's imagination. You have a very limited time to take this imaginary person and bring the details of their life, as you perceive them, to life. You attempt to do to that as fully and as vibrantly as you can. It's depressing to read how much you've failed. And it's not even particularly instructive or necessary to read how you succeeded because in the end don't you have to judge that? — John Malkovich