Philip Seymour Hoffman Quotes

“I had insecurities and fears like everybody does, and I got over it. But I was interested in the parts of me that struggled with those things.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Sometimes I have a great day of filming and sometimes the theater strikes me better. It just depends.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“The film is made in the editing room. The shooting of the film is about shopping, almost. It's like going to get all the ingredients together, and you've got to make sure before you leave the store that you got all the ingredients. And then you take those ingredients and you can make a good cake - or not.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Life's pretty funny when you're objectively on the outside looking at it.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

In life, do you ever really know if you're missing an opportunity? No, you really don't.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“My soul is in good shape.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“It's important to say that actors can't act alone, it's impossible. What we have to do is support each other.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“The ambition, the drive, the wanting to be the center of attention, the wanting to succeed ... They're all inside me somewhere.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Well, in the theater, I think you're actually more responsible for what is going on onstage as a director than you are in film.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

Ultimately what I'll do next is up in the air for me.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“If you're a human being walking the earth, you're weird, you're strange, you're psychologically challenged.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

When you become a parent, you look at your parents differently. You look at being a child differently. It's an awakening, a revelation that you have.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I think therapy is a helpful thing. I think everyone knows it. You do it for your life, you do it for yourself, because you want to explore some things, and get at the bottom of some things. It's about your life, the quality of your life.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I do understand what it is to not want to commit to someone, knowing that might bring pain or commit to a life that has to do with being responsible to people other than myself. These things, I think, are normal things.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I think directors should be confident in their leadership capabilities. I think directors should be confident in what they want to do.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“There are a lot of things going on with my life right now that don't just have to do with career. So I have a hard time making decisions about work. That's really a luxury problem.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I like to come to the set with very strong ideas and strong opinions about how to do things. And I like also dealing with somebody who's like that.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“When you're playing someone who really lived, you carry a burden, a burden to be accurate. But it's one that you have to let go of ultimately.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I don't have a specific thing I want anyone to get out of anything I do.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Film's hard when you don't have any relationship with the director at all and you just show up. Then you really are just a gun for hire.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I got into plays in high school then I ended up going to college for it.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“My girlfriend's a costume designer in the theater.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

Directing is a really kind of amazing thing, because you're helping others and, in the middle of that, you have to worry about yourself.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I got sober when I was 22 years old.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

Creating anything is hard.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“The drama nerd comes out in me when I'm in a theater.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Actors are investigators.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I didn't have any idea that I would be able to have a career in film.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I don't get nervous when I'm directing a play. It's not like acting.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“In a film there a lot of people scheduling, you know.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“It's really hard to watch things and then not think about anything afterwards.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“My ideal weight is 205, actually.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“People aren't going to throw the kind of money at certain people that they used to.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“I work constantly but I work at a lot of different things. You know, I run a theater company in New York, I direct plays, act in plays, in movies, so I try to keep it eclectic.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“My love for the theater has always been a priority. That hasn't changed. I got into acting that way. The film work that came up was really a surprise.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“When people don't know who you are, they're seeing your work for the first time. But if they've seen a lot, getting certain things across is a more difficult.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“When you're acting, you're subjective; when you're a director, you're more objective.You're kind of watching from the outside and helping others, and therefore I learn my mistakes through others, and also my assets through others.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“The strange thing is I never thought I'd do films,”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

Learning how to die is therefore learning how to live,

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

If all people are encouraged to actually see who they're coexisting with, or even if they're not coexisting with other people.It's like to look at the world you're in.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“If you get a chance to act in a room that somebody else has paid rent for, then you're given a free chance to practice your craft.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“When you read, you think, and when you smoke, you think. It's a pleasurable thing, and not a duty.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“A self-awareness moment. All of a sudden everything he has done comes flashing into his mind, a self-criticism that is unbearable.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“All over the world, young men and young women will always dream dreams.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Being with a kid always takes you to being a kid somehow, and they really are showing me a childhood I might not have had in some way.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

I feel like the need to want to create and make something is stronger than the difficulties are going through.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“We really enjoy that, having a relationship with writers, developing material and getting a director, actors, that we have kind of that family kind of as a group we're going to do it together mentality in a project. Then the tough part is - so what actually goes has very little to do with us sometimes.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“Bob Glaudini, the writer, he's a wonderfully talented man and all his plays and his screenplays, they all have sense of something bigger, even though you're looking at something very simple.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

Sometimes it's hard to say no. Ultimately, if you stick to your guns, you have the career that you want. Don't get me wrong. I love a good payday and I'll do films for fun. But ultimately my main goal is to do good work. If it doesn't pay well, so be it.

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

“To have that concentration to act well is like lugging things up staircases in your brain. I think that's a thing people don't understand. It is that exhausting. If you're doing it well, if you're concentrating the way you need to, if your will and your concentration and emotional and imagination and emotional life are all in tune, concentrated and working together in that role, that is just like lugging weights upstairs with your head ... And I don't think that should get any easier.”

— Philip Seymour Hoffman