Ben Stiller Quotes

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!

My own parents were touchy-feely.

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

I have a lot of nervous energy. Work is my best way of channelling that into something productive unless I want to wind up assaulting the postman or gardener.

God was showing off when he made you.

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

I think most politicians could take a dodgeball in the face.

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.

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.

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

I have not been an easygoing guy. I think it's called bipolar manic depression. I've got a rich history of that in my family.

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

Nobody makes me bleed my own blood. Nobody!

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.

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.

Maybe forced retirement isn't necessary after all.

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.

Stiller was able to reach speeds of around 35 miles per hour, no small task for someone who had never longboarded before.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples.

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?

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

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

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.

People like to define you through what they've seen you do ... There are aspects of my personality, I guess, that come through on-screen, but I don't sit around thinking, I've been a bumbling suitor all my life.

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

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

What the hell am I doing with my life?

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

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

As a kid I had dreams about being successful, thinking it would be cool. Then, when I was in my 20s, I really thought I had it much more figured out than I do now.

It was a mixed blessing to have famous parents. It was tough to go to auditions and be bad, since I couldn't be anonymous.

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.

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

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.

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.

Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.

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

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.

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

I don't play hockey at all. I'm not comfortable on skates.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.