Stiller Quotes & Sayings

There's an old saying in Hollywood: It's not the length of your film, it's how you use it. — Ben Stiller

Should she stick with the nice, sensitive guy who treats her well (Ben Stiller), or should she roll the dice with the frustrating boho bozo who treats her like crap (Ethan Hawk)? Winona made the kind of romantic decision most people my age would have made in 1994: She pursued a path that was difficult and depressing, and she did so because it showed the slightest potential for transcendence. — Chuck Klosterman

I loved the idea of touching base with an audience. — Jerry Stiller

I shave without using shaving cream. — Jerry Stiller

Created for MTV in 1990, the sharply observed, pop-conscious Ben Stiller Show - featuring its star's lacerating impersonations of Bono, Tom Cruise, and Eddie Munster, among others - subsequently moved to Fox TV and copped an Emmy for writing. — Manohla Dargis

I'm very interested in the early American history, the time when the country came together. — Ben Stiller

When you have kids you want to be able to go to movies and take the family too, and actually all enjoy it together. I don't think there are that many great, live action family movies that everybody can enjoy. — Ben Stiller

Being on a sitcom stops me from getting Alzheimer's. — Jerry Stiller

When I was growing up, This is Spinal Tap [1984] was the ultimate comedy, and it was the kind of thing I wanted to do. But you get to a point with parody where you can't go much further because ultimately it's feeding off of somebody else's creativity. — Ben Stiller

Images are not quite ideas, they are stiller than that, with less implication outside themselves. And they are not myth, they do not have the explanatory power; they are nearer to pure story. Nor are they always metaphors; they do not say this is that, they say this is. — Robert Hass

I love history. I'm very interested by it and I think it's great to have a movie that brings it alive in a way. It's sort of that romanticized version of it. — Ben Stiller

I know that I'm better as an actor when I'm working with a good actor. I think anytime you're working with a better actor, it makes you a better actor. — Ben Stiller

I am a big fan of Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller, who have carved a niche for themselves. I think doing different kind of films gives you longevity and the ability to set yourself apart. — Vir Das

We managed to hang in there. Today when people get married there's a tendency to run away when things get tough. There is a lot of strength in hanging together. — Jerry Stiller

I would like to do more dramas when I find a good role that will allow me to politely upset people's expectations of me as a comic actor. — Ben Stiller

First of all, the first cut of the movie was like three and a half hours and I walked away going, 'Wow, I know there's like twenty minutes that I can cut -' when I first saw it 'But I don't know after that.' The first time I put up then in front of people I was like, 'Oh, my God, I can take that out and that out and that out.' — Ben Stiller

Maybe forced retirement isn't necessary after all. — Ben Stiller

I don't think the public is dying to see me necessarily be funny all the time. — Ben Stiller

I think people will be curious to see what I can do as a dramatic actor. — Ben Stiller

I don't devalue comedy as compared to drama. Not one bit. — Ben Stiller

I don't think it's ever easy to be funny. I find it easy to amuse myself with a certain sort of cynical dark humor that tends toward the meaner side, like my character in Happy Gilmore. Those kinds of characters come easily to me. — Ben Stiller

I look at careers like Ben Stiller and think that's a great career to have where you're doing movies that you write and direct, and also act in films, although he's primarily an actor. — Eli Roth

It can make you sad to look at pictures from your youth. So there's a trick to it. The trick is not to look at the later pictures. — Jerry Stiller

I've been to Japan but I've never been to China, I'd love to go to China. I don't know, I like to go to places that are remote. So, I think I'd like to do that more. And just sort of also explore not having a structured work life someday, to have more free time to sort of see what happens. — Ben Stiller

Well, this movie I've been working on for a while. I had the idea for the movie like twenty years ago when I was doing 'Empire of the Sun' in 1987 because at that time that's when all these Vietnam movies were being made and my friends and I were going on auditions for these Vietnam movies and my friends were getting them and going away to fake boot camps. — Ben Stiller

I just watched Paul Michael Glaser. He was the reason I wanted to do the movie because as a kid I was such a big fan of his. I watched all the episodes and tried to get a feeling for what he was doing. — Ben Stiller

Even when I'm not directing, that doesn't stop Owen from having ideas for what I should be doing. — Ben Stiller

It's important that we came here, just to touch base here in this great country ... When I was about 16 I came with my dad for a couple of weeks and had a great time and I've wanted to come back, it's been way too long. So, I'm very happy to be here and I want to come back longer with the rest of my family. — Ben Stiller

I've been around the block a lot and I've had a merry trail for 55 years. — Jerry Stiller

Zoolander was more of my own sensibility. — Ben Stiller

I don't think know if anything's going to translate anywhere. You're making a movie, you hope it's going to be funny, you can't think about how it's going to go over. — Ben Stiller

I wanted to be funny for people who didn't care about fashion at all, to just to kind of exist as a silly character. — Ben Stiller

Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. Nobody! — Ben Stiller

When you're doing a comedy and you want to somehow satirise people who are taking themselves seriously, I think the most serious genre is the thing you're going to get the most out of. If you're trying to satirise a comedy, it's hard to do that - it doesn't really work as well. But I love the war movie genre and I'm a fan of all those movies that are part of what this movie is. — Ben Stiller

I was a bad student. I liked archaeology actually, I was interested in maybe becoming an archaeologist but I was such a bad student and had such bad grades that I wasn't going to get into any really good college so I fell back on acting. — Ben Stiller

Some of the routines come back very easily. We do it off the top of our heads. — Jerry Stiller

The real voice is stiller and smaller and seems to know, without confusion, the difference between right and wrong and the subtle delineation between the beautiful and profane. It's not an agitated voice, but ever patient as though it approves a million false starts. The voice I am talking about is a deep water of calming wisdom. — Donald Miller

I had two projects that fell apart during preproduction. The first one was this movie that Judd Apatow and I had written about two guys following the Rolling Stones. It was going to be half concert film, half pseudo-documentary. It was Mick Jagger's idea.The other one was Simple Plan, based on a novel by Scott Smith. It's a great book - really stark, not a comedy - about a guy who finds $4 million in a plane crash and decides to keep it. — Ben Stiller

The cliches are that it's the most generic Starsky and Hutch plot you can find. — Ben Stiller

My parents used to throw great New Year's Eve parties. They invited such an eclectic mix of showbiz people. All those cool people were always hanging out at our apartment. — Ben Stiller

My wisdom has accumulated long like a cloud, it becomes stiller and darker. So does all wisdom which shall one day bear lightnings.- — Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm not an expert on the Malaysian sense of humor. — Ben Stiller

James L.Brooks is just a very original person. So that was definitely the luckiest, most important thing that happened to me [meeting him]. Then I guess also meeting Ben Stiller. He cast me in the only thing I think I ever auditioned for and got: Cable Guy [1996]. And that led to us becoming friends. — Owen Wilson

I've had a very good career and I'm grateful that the public has had some level of acceptance and appreciation of my work. — Ben Stiller

I saw Ben Stiller's movie Walter Mitty [2013]; it's very beautiful. You look at some of the movies John Ford did with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart, and then look at Remington and Ansel Adams, and I think you see a connection, certainly in the imagery of the West. — Owen Wilson

When we were visiting New York City, I took my kids to the same playground where I went growing up. It was fun to feel that connection of having gone there as a kid and being there as a parent. — Ben Stiller

There are a lot of good shows that don't get picked up. Like that Ben Stiller pilot, Heat Vision And Jack? That would have been a great show, but somehow it slipped by. — Bret McKenzie

The big-name stars ... are always going to be playing what they've played before if they want to remain so-called A-list stars. That's why someone like Johnny Depp is doing more interesting roles not caring about the size of the movie. — Ben Stiller

Those East Coast rich kids are a different breed, on a fast track to nowhere. Your friends in Seattle are downright Canadian in their niceness. None of you has a cell phone. The girls wear hoodies and big cotton underpants and walk around with tangled hair and smiling, adorned backpacks. Do you know how absolutely exotic it is that you haven't been corrupted by fashion and pop culture? A month ago I mentioned Ben Stiller, and do you remember how you responded? 'Who's that?' I loved you all over again. — Maria Semple

Mindfulness can have a sobering effect on the restless, jittery psyche. The stiller and more focused it becomes, the more I am able to peer into the sources of my febrile reactivity, to catch the first stirring of hatred before it overwhelms me with loathing and spite, to observe with ironic detachment the conceited babbling of the ego, to notice at its inception the self-demeaning story that could tip me into depression. And — Stephen Batchelor

I don't know what that weid fantasy is that makes people go, "Oh, you must have had a great childhood." — Ben Stiller

Whatever talent I had, I'm sure it helped that my parents were in the business and that I grew up around actors, comedians and directors. — Ben Stiller

You have trouble living in the present, so you linger on the past because you feel like you never really lived it — Ben Stiller

I don't even want to think of myself as an actor because it's such an insecure place to go. — Ben Stiller

I grew up wanting to make movies, and along the way I suddenly found that I had a career doing comedy. — Ben Stiller

Money is sensual. — Jerry Stiller

In the corridors under tehre is nothing but sleep. And stiller than ever on orchard boughs they keep Tryst with the moon, and deep is the silence, deep On moon-washed apples of wonder. — John Drinkwater

I was staying on [writer/director/actor] Eric Schaeffer's couch in New York, and he said, "I've got this movie [If Lucy Fell]. Can you do five days on it?" And I was like, "Yeah, anything. Twenty-four hours times five is 120 hours. Oh, great, I'll fill 120 hours of my life with something." So I did that and it was fun, and then I did Flirting with Disaster. — Ben Stiller

I'm just not a naturally cheery person. I'm naturally moody. I know that from people who spend a lot of time with me. People who spend a lot of time with me may not wish to spend a lot more time with me. — Ben Stiller

During the Great Depression, when people laughed their worries disappeared. Audiences loved these funny men. I decided to become one. — Jerry Stiller

I love New York. I was sad, depressed and incredibly moved by our fellow countrymen and what they've done. I wanted to give people a chance to see something funny, have a distraction. — Ben Stiller

I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is. — Ben Stiller

It's great to work with the people who make you laugh and who are funnier than I am. — Ben Stiller

All those rumors about her being underweight are trash. She's [Calista Flockhart] gorgeous. — Ben Stiller

Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty. — Ben Stiller

Creative comedy is like growing geraniums in a mine field. — Jerry Stiller

Anne hated the idea of putting me down in front of the audience. — Jerry Stiller

I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines ! — Ben Stiller

The worst thing in this business is to be thought of as a no-talent. — Jerry Stiller

Success doesn't necessarily mean happiness. — Ben Stiller

I enjoy the work I do in comedies. It's a valid test of your creative abilities. — Ben Stiller

I studied Tom Cruise running in all the Mission Impossibles. I think he's one of the best screen runners. — Ben Stiller

Hollywood never knew there was a Vietnam War until they made the movie. — Jerry Stiller

God was showing off when he made you. — Ben Stiller

Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples. — Ben Stiller

Sometimes I wondered whether I hadn't let my career get confined to one direction, but lately I've decided to accept the fact that I have this opportunity to be successful doing comedies. — Ben Stiller

The failure of The Cable Guy impacted my career. I had to start writing and acting again. — Ben Stiller

Jim Carrey, a comic genius, has a harder time overcoming the public's desire for him to be funny simply because he's so good at it. — Ben Stiller

If you look at my eyes when I'm dancing, you'll see that glazed look. — Ben Stiller

Anne is very forgiving. She doesn't care about money, being rich, or clothes. We never argued about finances. — Jerry Stiller

A eugoogoolizer ... one who speaks at funerals ... Or did you think I was too stupid to know what a eugoogooly was? — Ben Stiller

I recently watched that Lucie Arnaz-produced documentary [Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie, 1992] about her parents [Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz], and I saw so much of my own childhood there. — Ben Stiller

Horror is like comedy. Woody Allen's comedy is going to be very different from Ben Stiller's comedy which is going to be different from Adam Sandler's comedy which is going to be different from Judd Apatow's comedy. They're all comedy, but they're all very different types and you can enjoy all of them. Horror is the same way. — Eli Roth

There's a sense here in L.A. that everybody's aware of everybody all the time. It's funny but we choose it. People who are here want to be here, including me. — Ben Stiller

Paul is Starsky, and I met him before shooting. He was very kind and encouraged us to go with what we wanted to do. It was very sweet to see them back with the car after 25 years. — Ben Stiller

I think this whole celebrity world is weird anyway. Weird and funny and kind of pathetic and yet so right for parody. — Ben Stiller

It's what I wanted to do with my life. Not necessarily just direct Jim Carrey movies, but to direct and act and write and create and along the way discover what it is that I'm about. — Ben Stiller

It's so interesting to watch Ben Stiller work because he just knows what's funny. — Michael Pena

We had met with Ben Stiller here in LA when I was shooting The Ring and he was doing Meet The Fockers and we have friends in common. But we didn't know each other well. He's fantastic and we really had a great time on this and we were both laughing at where we were at, this other couple, and how it was mirroring what we were going through as well. It was clever writing in that way. — Naomi Watts

I'm Jewish, but my mom's Catholic, so the guilt area is covered. I have the highest expectations, along with the lowest. I tried to put as much of myself as possible in Reality Bites, but in terms of my humor, I'm still trying to figure out what my sensibility is. It's a process, really. I don't feel like I have a very clear idea of what I'm supposed to be, or even of how people perceive me, except that I got put into this Generation X file. — Ben Stiller

I went to heaven, -
'Twas a small town,
Lit with a ruby,
Lathed with down.
Stiller than the fields
At the full dew,
Beautiful as pictures
No man drew.
People like the moth,
Of mechlin, frames,
Duties of gossamer,
And eider names.
Almost contented
I could be
'Mong such unique
Society. — Emily Dickinson

I think you never want to have to go into the scene having to improvise; you want to make sure its working on the page. But I do like to have the ability to try stuff just in the moment, to give it some sort of spontaneity. — Ben Stiller

The normal cut in a theatrical film is anywhere from 3 to 6 seconds. That means thousands of images in a film over a couple of hours. In Visitors the cuts come every 70-plus seconds. The point of view is that the stiller one can be the more open to their senses they become. The whole world is quick right now. If things can be slowed down they stay in memory longer. — Godfrey Reggio

I'm always willing to endure humiliation on behalf of my characters. — Ben Stiller

I've got a prostate the size of a honeydew and a head full of bad memories. — Jerry Stiller

When I didn't have a family, I was much more of a workaholic ... I still like to work, but I also want to be home with them. As you get older, you realize you need balance. If it's not fun, what's the point? — Ben Stiller

There's always an element of fear that you need to work a lot until people get sick and tired of you or finally figure out that you're a fraud after all! — Ben Stiller

I don't have a burning desire to be taken seriously as an actor. I don't have a master plan in that way. — Ben Stiller

It's weird that people expect me to be funny. I find it a real burden when I'm expected to be humorous on talk shows. — Ben Stiller

The city reeked of death, and the savages that resided within its imposing starkness existed in fear of their lives. They had been shocked by the recent bloody Whitechapel murders, as if starvation, disease, moral degradation, and perpetual smog drowning all color in gray wasn't enough to bring home the pathetic reality of their miserable existence. The police were no nearer to capturing the monster that lurked in the crevices, and London seemed stiller in the dark, the streets devoid of hope. — Carol Oates