Dustin Hoffman Movie Quotes

The movie truism is that stars play themselves, while actors play other people - troubled or toxic, and memorably strange. By that definition, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who disappeared into the rabbit hole of his characters' souls, was our generation's anti-star and the chameleonic film actor of his age. ~ Richard Corliss

I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Somehow I think it was declared very early on that I was the - if not the black sheep of the family, not a very good student. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Someone once said to me, 'Some of us choose to live with a lifeboat just a little bit out of our reach.' I'd like to reach a point where I no longer bullshit myself. I think that's the natural human condition - to lie to yourself. Because the truth is painful. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I've been working since I was 18. People say something every time I cut my hair. They wouldn't say this to Dustin Hoffman. ~ Carole Bouquet

My nursery school did a production of 'The Three Little Pigs.' I played the third pig. When the wolf knocked on my door, I refused to get up and answer it because, to me, he was knocking the wrong way. I just lay there, snoring away on stage, fully immersed in my character. My dad turned to my mom and said: 'Dustin Hoffman.' ~ Zooey Deschanel

For a couple of years at the end of the 1970s, Dustin Hoffman was a fixture in our family. My father was his lawyer and friend. ~ John Burnham Schwartz

I'm sixty-eight, I cry every chance I can. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Many actors want to play Hamlet and Macbeth. Ever since I became an actor, from the very beginning I just wanted to play a Shetland pony. I cannot explain why ~ Dustin Hoffman

There are certain actors who are very good at improvising, like Dustin Hoffman and Glenda Jackson. ~ John Schlesinger

There are maybe 100 actors I look up to, but my first two favourite actors were Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson. ~ Paul Dano

I wanted to find my limitations so I decided to do Shylock. And if I fail? I've never been afraid of that. I have other fears - doing bad work knowingly is the worst fear. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I knew I finally made it as a performer when I began hearing rumors that I was gay. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Bad movies: they can be tatty classics of crazed ineptitude, like Edward D. Wood's 'Glen or Glenda' and 'Plan 9 from Outer Space,' or big-budget misfires like the 1987 'Ishtar,' a would-be comedy that sent Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman on a Hope-Crosby Road to Dystopia. ~ Richard Corliss

A "take" is an opportunity to fail ... and we think that we have to get it right all the time. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Peter Pan, prepare to meet thy doom. ~ Dustin Hoffman

One of the things you can do as an actor, is compensate for the things you can't do in life. ~ Dustin Hoffman

There's nothing that I love more than predawn. I'm with the dogs, I make coffee, and there's no one up. ~ Dustin Hoffman

There's a new medical crisis. Doctors are reporting that many men are having allergic reactions to latex condoms. They say they cause severe swelling. So what's the problem? ~ Dustin Hoffman

People like Johnny Depp are an exception. He is the current model of what an actor should be. His body of work speaks volumes. He was so under-rated for so long, but he will have longevity - and it is such a gratifying thrill to see he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I admire Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman for their sheer dedication to their craft. ~ Lavrenti Lopes

A good review from the critics is just another stay of execution. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I lived below the official American poverty line until I was 31. ~ Dustin Hoffman

The truth is, I've made about 30 movies in 30 years, and I've been criticized for 30 years for not making more movies. ~ Dustin Hoffman

There's people who live life authentically and there's people who live a life of fabrication. And it begins with the question of how you're gonna do your time. And these are observations I made about Folsom when I was there with Dustin Hoffman when he was directing 'Straight Time.' ~ Michael Mann

I love working, I'd be dead if I hadn't found myself as an actor I didn't have to be successful. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Myth is supposed to bring us together, but fantasy alienates us. ~ Dustin Hoffman

The plight of the actor, even if he's a star, is the plight of the women's movement. They're saying the same thing to us: get into bed, give me a good time, then give me something to eat, go get the laundry, be a good girl. ~ Dustin Hoffman

In my room as a kid ... I'd play a fighter and get knocked to the floor and come back to win. ~ Dustin Hoffman

It's very painful for us to feel we deserve a life. That's the toughest thing. That we deserve to have a life. That can take a lifetime. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I was such a big Dustin Hoffman fan when I was young. ~ Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I feel like I went from being a boy to being a man, in some respects, through the help of Dustin Hoffman. ~ Patrick J. Adams

My interest in acting came from seeing Broadway shows on summer trips to New York as a child. It was the original production of 'A Chorus Line' in an easy tie with the first 10 -15 minutes of Dustin Hoffman in 'Tootsie' that hooked me on the romantic idea that the impossible, difficult life of a struggling actor was for me. ~ John Lloyd Young

I got to work with Dustin Hoffman on a film called 'Billy Bathgate.' I got to work with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn and Bob Zemeckis on 'Death Becomes Her.' There are still a few actors out there that I would like to work with. ~ Bruce Willis

Usually, those people don't even like actors and they can't wait until they get in the cutting room. They kind of break down in categories: directors who like to be surprised and some of them abhor being surprised. As far as directing, we all direct when we're acting in movies ... every single one of us. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Well, 45-odd years of doing it, so we all pile up the things we like about directors and the things we don't like about directors. And sometimes they're very similar. ~ Dustin Hoffman

The HR department is like the soldiers in the movie 300, holding the line. They have no power to say 'yes' but enormous power to say 'no.' Their job is to prevent you from moving forward. Find a way to vault past them by getting introductions to people who can say 'yes. ~ Reid Hoffman

I knew that we had an obligation and that was to keep an energy in it and try to keep the audience interested. In fact, I asked some of the actors to take a look at His Girl Friday, a Howard Hawks film with Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant, because they talk over each other and there's a great energy. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I'm a huge fan of Dustin Hoffman. ~ Sharlto Copley

Euthanasia is legal in Hollywood. They just kill the film if it doesn't succeed immediately. ~ Dustin Hoffman

We're all a little nit autistic. ~ Dustin Hoffman

I'm not an Adonis, that's for damn sure. I've never really thought of myself that way, and it doesn't matter to me. My favorite actors aren't Adonises. Dustin Hoffman is a flawed-looking man; he's amazing to me. Tom Hanks is flawed-looking; people love him. Same with Gene Hackman. ~ Shia Labeouf

I did a movie called 'The Savages' with Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, where I played a nurse, and it showed me in a different role from what I played on 'The Wire.' It showed my range as an actor. ~ Gbenga Akinnagbe

Everything we do on 'Luck' is absolutely no different than if we'd had been doing it in a feature film. There's no short cuts. The specificity of what every single line might mean. Everything Dustin Hoffman does. Kevin Dunn is as authentic in the last scene of the last episode as he is in the first scene of the first episode. ~ Michael Mann

I did some writing and bought a book, and have been working on that as a film to act and direct in. ~ Dustin Hoffman

It isn't a big jump in the imagination to see yourself living alone like Mr Hoppy. ~ Dustin Hoffman

Paul McCartney and The Beatles in general are my idols. And I love Sting. I got to meet Sting. That was really cool. Dustin Hoffman is my favorite actor. Also, I think of Magic Johnson as an idol. ~ Nat Wolff