Rob Lowe Quotes

I have had a lot of blessed, interesting things happen to me and have bumped up against some amazing people.

In comedy you have to be willing to not take yourself seriously, you know? I take comedy really seriously, and so to take comedy seriously, you must not, you cannot, ever take yourself seriously.

In acting, there's a type of courage you're recognized for all the time. You lose 100 pounds and play a guy with AIDS, and you get rewarded. But, in life, doing what is courageous is quiet, and no one knows about it. Courage is someone making sacrifices for their family or making selfless decisions for what they hope or feel.

Being in a successful marriage is no different than being cast in a successful movie. It's all about who you pick; in that first moment, did you pick the right person? I think you need to pick somebody who's more interested in being married than in getting married.

Individuals usually do a better job than the government.

My dad is an attorney. I've always been interested in it. My sons are probably going to law school.

My life and the lives of many across the world have been deeply affected by lymphoma.

Getting married isn't going to make your relationship better. It's just a ceremony.

As a person navigating the waters of public scrutiny, you are often unable to hold on to personal heroes or villains. Inevitably you will meet your hero, and he may turn out to be less than impressive, while your villain turns out to be the coolest cat you've ever met.

After my parents' divorce when I was 4, I spent weekends with my dad before we finally moved to California. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was incapable of enjoying the day's activities, of being in the moment, because I was already dreading the inevitable goodbye of Sunday evening.

Last night, we were all watching Harry Potter in bed, and I thought, 'This isn't something you have when you're single, that's for sure.'

In my bachelor days, the priority wasn't learning to cook.

My roles in comedies from 'Austin Powers' to 'Tommy Boy' to 'Wayne's World,' were sort of comedic 'straight man' parts. My character on 'Parks & Recreation' is the comic relief in a comedy. To play a character that appears strictly for laughs is sort of new for me and really fun.

Cannes is a little bit like French wine. There are certain years that people prefer over others.

I'm perfectly flawed ... I've got tons of flaws.

My thing is personal freedoms: freedoms for the individual to love whom they want, do with what they want. In fact, I want the government out of almost everything.

I think part of maturity is knowing who you are.

Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life. To the extent that I had any inner turmoil, I had only myself to blame. I also thought of my two boys and what kind of example I hoped to be. I would always want them to take charge of their own futures and not be paralyzed by the comfort and certainty of the status quo or be cowed by the judgment of those on the outside looking in.

So I came to the realization: Nothing in life is unfair. It's just life.

There is no recovery for anyone without lifting the lid on the pain of the past and letting in the light.

They (teenage boys)don't really listen to speeches or talks. They absorb incrementally, through hours and hours of observation.

It's a little bit of a 'if you can't beat 'em - join 'em' mentality for me when I think about Twitter.

I - you know, I loved politics more as a younger man.

I don't look back with any bitterness, though there are a couple of judgment calls and some '80s hairdos that I'd like to do over.

I have other obligations now - the show, my family, my life ... though I know that without my sobriety I wouldn't have any of those things.

I had long ago become a creation, a public image made to be consumed, piled on top of a precarious shell of a little boy wanting to be loved.

Directors are not worried about casting beautiful women, but they are not sure that they want to cast great-looking men. My looks have prevented people from seeing my work.

Like most guys, I don't come to beauty regimes naturally. I'm dragged kicking and screaming by the best in the world.

I've been around for so long, people have their perceptions of me: good, bad or indifferent.

The Brat Pack is timeless.

Let me just say this - sometimes being a trailblazer is highly overrated.

We should all be so lucky in our lives to create things that we're still talking about 25 years later.

I've come to really like Twitter. You really do get to see what I'm about, and I like sharing with my fans.

Show me someone who doesn't have some sort of experience that they would be uncomfortable for people to know about and I'll show you a dullard.

I like doing things that are different, unexpected, and where I feel that either the role feels like a natural fit for me or it's a really big swing that I don't know if I'm going to connect on.

It took being famous to make me cool, which, by the way, I never forgot.

If you are fortunate enough to be part of a hit, particularly a transcendent one, all emotional ownership is transferred from you to the audience. They judge it and embrace it; project their own hopes, dreams, and fears onto it; take their personal meaning from its themes, and with these investments it becomes theirs. The significance of your participation pales in comparison to the significance the project has on their imaginations.

I have a friend who is very successful in business, and his motto is, 'Don't do what you can do. Do what only you can do.' First of all, you have to know what your specific, unique gift is and then you do that ... every actor does that but every once in a while an actor plays a part that only they can play.

I like the tradition of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances and how they react to events which force them to be heroic in a way that is not in their natures.

Be funny whenever possible, even if some people don't get it.

One of the interesting things about Twitter is looking how famous people choose to use it. Take someone like Steve Martin, who I follow: it's all sorts of comic gems, nothing private, nothing personal - all jokes. Other celebrities are overtly personal - like Charlie Sheen. I do a mix of observations and updates.

My son Matthew's beloved dog is a Jack Russell. His name is Buster. Matthew picked him as a puppy, when he was tiny himself.

Sun Valley is one of my favorite spots.

I learned to focus on what's real rather than imagined; on not letting feelings drive the bus; on being courageous and honest; on putting my total effort into something and not worrying about the result.

There is a movie called 'My Dog Skip,' starring my 'Outsiders' costar Diane Lane. I do not recommend it. If you have a child, particularly one about to leave home, watching this film is to be emotionally waterboarded.

I never get bored talking about themes dealing with ambition, leadership and what it means to be an American. I love that stuff. I just love it. I've loved it ever since I was on 'The West Wing.'

We all have a suspicion and hope that we've just been part of something special, something that may eventually change our lives. That no one else knows this makes it seem like we are living with a secret that we would like to share, but can't, sort of like having a superpower that's not come online or being president elect. For the moment, our lives proceed as usual, but within a month, we think, everything will change. It's a frustrating, if exciting, disconnect.

Comedies always need to be provocative and catch your attention in a way that dramas don't have to.

I've never agreed with the conventional wisdom that 'actors are great liars.' If more people understood the acting process, the goals of good actors, the conventional wisdom would be 'actors are terrible liars,' because only bad actors lie on the job. The good ones hate fakery and avoid manufactured emotion at all costs. Any script is enough of a lie anyway. (What experience does any actor have with flying a spacecraft? Killing someone?) What's called for, what actors are hired for, is to bring reality to the arbitrary.

I had had some successes in the '90s, always made money, but the truth was I was like a man pushing a boulder up a hill. A huge, heavy, difficult boulder made up of some career mistakes, projects that didn't meet expectations, and twenty years of being a known quantity.

The term 'celebrity memoir' has gotten such a bad name now, but there used to be a little bit of an art form to it.

You can't build a life on a backstage pass or free swag at Sundance.

I have never felt at any point in my life, good or bad, any ill will ever from the man or woman on the street.

I am the guy dressing up in, you know, the caveman outfit for the kids' birthday parties.

I had met my now wife, Sheryl, and was attempting my first try at monogamy, which was not really in my nature at the time, and I wasn't able to do it.

I liked being a teenager, but I would not go back for all the tea in China.

I started out being a really, really liberal Democrat.

To be counter to the culture, you are by definition willfully and actively ignoring the culture, i.e., reality.

I made a conscious effort to focus on television so I could stay in Los Angeles, so I wasn't on a location all over the world doing movies.

When I started on 'The West Wing,' that was at a time when this was still a stigma, because movie stars didn't do TV. Now, every movie star is desperate to find their 'True Detective.'

Matthew Lowe is one of the great water men that I know. He's a surfer, a great water polo player. I think he's half fish.

I was smart and married somebody who could do for me what I couldn't do for myself.

I followed my heart and stayed out of the results.

There's this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can't be in pain or they can't have rough lives or be deep or interesting.

I've been lucky enough in 'The West Wing' and 'Brothers & Sisters' to talk about the issues that are important to me with none of the awful mud-slinging or public scrutiny you have in politics.

I don't flip. I don't even dive into a pool - straight cannonball for me. No, thanks.

The cast of 'Parks & Rec' is just a group of unbelievably nice, humble, down to earth, hilarious friends.

If I had been on 'Ally McBeal,' I would have been seen coming out of the shower on the first show.

My greatest regret at the passing of America-hating strongman Hugo Chavez is that he didn't live long enough to party with Dennis Rodman.

For guys, I don't think you're ever ready ... I don't think you wake up and go, 'You know, today's the day I'm going to get married. By God, I'm ready. My house is in order, and it is time.'

A few years ago, I got to a point where I realised that the only way you can tell someone's age is how they live their life. The candles on the cake mean absolutely nothing.

My issue isn't about physical aging; my issue is about wanting to remain vigorous and youthful in my spirit.

David Blum burned a lot of bridges. He burned people early in their careers. He took on the wrong people, though. He's not Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe, he's David Blum living in a cheap flat.

The '80s were about trying to establish myself as an actor with a career. And being a teenager enjoying the fruits of being successful with lots of what I think is appropriate for that age.

I sadly never got to my prom. I was shooting 'The Outsiders.'

I'm what you would call an 'independent moderate.'

Look, if you want to wear a blindfold and stumble around your house bumping into things to learn how to play 'blind,' you can do that. A lot of actors do. You can block your hearing and not speak. But great performances are based on truth. And the truth is that you, Rob Lowe, can hear and you can speak.

I have, on the other hand, felt ill will from various people in the industry and the press.

You can't study the map forever. At some point it's time to start walking; there is only so much daylight.

I don't know what drives me.

What's gratifying about West Wing is that everybody told us that it couldn't be done - that the man or woman on the street didn't care about politics. But if you set things up correctly, people don't have a problem with it.

If you're telling a story, and somebody is going to come out badly, it better be you.

Tom Ford, who is my all-time favourite, once said to me, 'Here's the thing about dress shirts, Rob. You need white, and you need black.' 'What about blue,' I asked. He said, 'Have you ever seen Cary Grant in a blue dress shirt?'

I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart. I've met a lot of dramatic people who were stupid. But I've never met a funny person who wasn't smart.

For sure, without question, the writing is better on TV pound for pound than movies because the businesses have changed so much. So all the great writers would rather work for TV, and they do.

Making memories matters

I'd like to build a TV company for myself.

I am still in love with my wife.

Some actors specialize in shooting weapons and punching people. Some have the market on playing buffoons cornered, others specialize in roles that require heavy makeup or outrageous wardrobe. Some trade exclusively in a post-ironic blase attitude.

I look at it like this: that if Shakespeare were alive today, he would have written two or three plays about the Kennedy family, and actors would traditionally play JFK like they Hamlet or King Lear. They just would. I mean, people have played JFK, and they'll play him long after I have.

I have been looking forward to this age of my life for a long time. In my twenties, I marked the days on the calendar - I was sick of playing high-school kids.

I'm a registered Independent.

I've had years of psychiatry, and I ask about every six months - it's sort of like getting your oil checked - I ask, 'I'm not an actual narcissist, am I?' The learned men of psychiatry assure me that I meet none of the medical criteria.

I'm a sportsman, you know, and I shoot skeet, and I grew up in the Midwest, so that's a part of my culture.

When I got sober, that was 1990.

Guys are really lucky. We become our authentic selves the older we get.

There are so many family dinners you can do. I eventually had to go to them and say, 'Look, I don't do spatula work. I don't do scenes with oven mitts. If you're looking for that, you've got the wrong guy. I'm not doing scenes about casseroles. It's not happening.

Fame is not a natural condition for human beings.

I didn't go to Ivy League schools. I dropped out of college to go into movies.

I'm not unashamed to say that I like movies that make me verklempt.