A biography for Philip Seymour Hoffmanhasn’t been written yet.
“Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love.”
“I think part of why I have so many books around me and why I read every day is because I mythologize the writer. I don’t do that with any other artists.”
“There are characters in movies who I call 'film characters.' They don't exist in real life. They exist to play out a scenario. They can be in fantastic films, but they are not real characters; what happens to them is not lifelike.”
“Vanity is something that will only get in the way of doing your best work, and ultimately if you're truly vain you care more about your work than how you look in your work. I actually consider myself a pretty vain guy when it comes to that.”
“Good work is the only thing that would make me feel jealous or envious.”
“Sometimes I'm uncomfortable with the level of fame I've got! It all depends on the day and what's going on. I don't desire any more fame. I don't need it.”
“If you're a human being walking the earth, you're weird, you're strange, you're psychologically challenged.”
“I don't get nervous when I'm directing a play. It's not like acting.”
“The idea that you have a vision of what you're supposed to be, or going to be, or where your kids are going to be - and that that doesn't work out - is always going to be something that's going to affect people and move people.”
“In life, do you ever really know if you're missing an opportunity? No, you really don't.”
“Films are always a fiction, not documentary. Even a documentary is a kind of fiction.”
“If I was a little bit younger I would worry more. I'd want to do one thing at a time but now I try to do a bunch of different things at a time if I can.”
“Yeah, writers do hate writing.”
“Being unemployed is not good for an actor. No, it isn't, no matter how unsuccessful you are. Because you always remember getting fired from all the restaurants. You remember that stuff very, very strongly.”
“Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.”
“The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed... They're all inside me somewhere.”
“I've grown to really love musicals, you know?”
“It's hard for anybody who works a lot and has children. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.”
“I think part of being an actor is staying private.”
“People aren't going to throw the kind of money at certain people that they used to.”