Liev Schreiber Quotes

I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that's a lot of what acting is.

Part of what I enjoy about the theatre and acting is that sense of history.

Some actors need to be rattled and some need to be focused.

Film is such a bizarre vehicle for acting. It's such a bizarre experience. I don't think you ever really get familiar with it. If you do get familiar with it, you're probably not that good anymore.

The skill set for hockey is so specific to skating and if you haven't been skating as a kid it's impossible to play - and I wasn't a skater.

Its the difference between instinct and intuition,

Flaws reveal a lot about a character and who people are. The flawed elements of a character are where I find their humanity. Those are the things I tend to identify with - the weaknesses. I don't know why, but I identify with struggle more than with success.

I think it's really, really important to mix it up as an actor, to try to get as much kind of varied experience as you can, not only for your own personal growth as an actor but for the audience to keep them guessing about what you're going to do.

No, I grew up admiring people who played ice hockey.

He was very supportive of me, ... He saw every single play I did in New York. Ill never forget looking out into the audience and watching my brother, who was 40 years younger than my grandfather, sleeping in his chair during some of my early plays. My grandfather Alex never fell asleep.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong. That's what I find with acting. As soon as it becomes padded, it becomes pat.

You watch a hockey game, and the hand-eye coordination and the speed is really miraculous; how those guys track the puck alone, just following it with their eyes.

It's good to overexpose yourself with work. But don't expose yourself too much with the press.

You can think about your career or you can think about your job. I like to think about my job.

I'm kind of an obsessive-compulsive person, like, neat obsessive.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

Well, I don't think I've ever been a huge target for the press, and I value that to a degree, because there's a certain value for actors staying beneath the radar so they can play characters.

A lot of times in Hollywood you're as good as your last job.

Hamlet is a remarkably easy role. Physically it's hard because it tends to be about three hours long and you're talking the whole time. But it's a simple role and it adapts itself very well, because the thing about Hamlet is, we all are Hamlet.

I've always been more interested in the audience than I have in the plays. I like that idea of all those people sitting in the dark together. It's kind of fun.

I was a writer. I just wasn't a very good one. I was lucky enough to have a playwriting teacher who told me that I'd be a better actor than I would a playwright.

I direct in the same way that I act, which is thinking about what the scene needs.

I love having that creative discussion where, at the end of the day, you both feel better for having done it. Maybe it's a typically Jewish thing, where you sort of go at each other.

You always have to create the character from the ground up.

You know, I have a deep, deep affinity for Dr. Seuss.

Everyone assumes that novelists are smarter and more interesting. They're generally smarter and more interesting, but they're often very short. So it kind of cancels all the smart and interesting stuff out.

And you know, I hate to admit this, but I don't always think in terms of Shakespeare. When I eat, I do. When I'm at a restaurant, I'll think, 'Hmm, what would Macbeth have ordered?'

You should never ask actors about politics.

I'm actually a very bad surfer, which is good because everybody likes a bad surfer. Nobody likes a good surfer.

There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet.

I didn't think that a career in theater was very realistic so I thought the only thing I could make money doing and still be somewhat artistic was, god help me, advertising.

My publicist told me not to talk about politics but, yes, I think we have a president who stole the election.

Where else do you find great directors? Acting is one of the places.

I am so used to being able to express myself from being an actor. So when people don't understand me, I'm just completely lost.

I'm misrepresented as a scary person. I'm not. It's all about my size and my eyebrows.

I was always drawn to tough girls. I liked that domineering thing.

When you're in a place like New York or D.C. you just can't beat it, and it's so hard to recreate because they are both such distinctive places.

I'm drawn to people who share that sense of loss. All actors are trying to repair damaged relationships. I think that might be why I've been drawn to other actors.

If you fall in love with somebody you're working with, fine, but wait till your project is over.

Call me communist, but I think that's something that everyone, regardless of their family's income, has a right to, and I was fortunate enough to have a mother who felt that way as well.

I get very nervous around famous people and I get nervous around beautiful women.