Bill Murray Quotes

“It's given many great performers their start, but more importantly, it's killed thousands of barely talented people and it's put them to death, and they're now doing the jobs they're built for.”

— Bill Murray

“I try to be available for life to happen to me.”

— Bill Murray

I try to be able for life to happen to me.

— Bill Murray

“You can handle just about anything that comes at you out on the road with a believable grin, common sense and whiskey.”

— Bill Murray

“I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job.”

— Bill Murray

“Somewhere there's a score being kept, so you have an obligation to live life as well as you can, be as engaged as you can.”

— Bill Murray

“One of the things I like about acting is that, in a funny way, I come back to myself.”

— Bill Murray

“And I don't like to work. I only like working when I'm working.”

— Bill Murray

“We're born alone. We do need each other. It's lonely to really effectively live your life, and anyone you can get help from or give help to; that's part of your obligation.”

— Bill Murray

“Don't think about your errors or failures; otherwise, you'll never do a thing.”

— Bill Murray

“I think midlife crisis is just a point where people's careers have reached some plateau and they have to reflect on their personal relationships.”

— Bill Murray

“People say I'm difficult and sometimes that's a badge of honour.”

— Bill Murray

“Yeah, I think that's sort of the American way. And it's also the Polish way, it turns out.”

— Bill Murray

“I think that the online world has actually brought books back. People are reading because they're reading the damn screen. That's more reading than people used to do.”

— Bill Murray

“All of us kids ended up 'doing Mom.' There are four of us who've tried show business. Five if you insist on counting my sister the nun, who does liturgical dance.”

— Bill Murray

“Chicks dig me because I rarely wear underwear, and when I do, it's usually something unusual.”

— Bill Murray

“I'm just an obnoxious guy who can make it appear charming, that's what they pay me to do.”

— Bill Murray

“You know ... they say an elephant never forgets.
What they don't tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”

— Bill Murray

“Every pizza is a personal pizza if you try hard and believe in yourself.”

— Bill Murray

“I count on the kindness of strangers.”

— Bill Murray

The cool part about naming your kid is you don't have to add six numbers to make sure the name is available.

— Bill Murray

Everyone needs to take a vacation from the sort of automatic things you do.

— Bill Murray

“You can't think about what you're going to do. It just gets in the way. You have to be just available for life, otherwise you're not bringing anything to the party. So I don't lie awake thinking about what I'm going to do workwise. There's just too much going on.”

— Bill Murray

“You'll never be good if you don't know that you are.”

— Bill Murray

“I think the only reason I've had the career life that I've had is that someone told me some secrets early on about living. You can do the very best you can when you're very, very relaxed, no matter what it is or what your job is, the more relaxed you are the better you are. That's sort of why I got into acting. I realized the more fun I had, the better I did it. And I thought, that's a job I could be proud of. It's changed my life learning that, and it's made me better at what I do.”

— Bill Murray

“You had to keep the mood up; you had to keep the tempo up. You had to keep the feeling of, "Hey, we're doing something that's really exciting. It's fun being with these people." And the more fun you have, the better you do it.”

— Bill Murray

I don't have to take this abuse from you
I have hundreds of people waiting in line to abuse me!

— Bill Murray

“We still have to put some cherry syrup on it, and then we can eat it”

— Bill Murray

“If you walk up to some random person on the street, grab them by the shoulder, and say 'Did you just see what I saw?!', you'll find that no-one wants to talk to you.”

— Bill Murray

I improvise whenever I feel it's important, or whenever I think that something's there. It's nice to have a script that's so well-written that I don't have to improvise. I mean, I used to have to re-write whole movies; this is kind of nice.

— Bill Murray

“If you have a good script, that's what gets you involved. It's harder to write a good screenplay than to find something.”

— Bill Murray

“You want my dark side? Have I ever stolen anything? Not so much intentionally. But I don't think it's so much stealing as ... being a part of the flow of the universe. You know, where there's an exchange. It's positive. It's negative. There's an exchange of goods and services”

— Bill Murray

When I started, the scripts weren't as good, and you'd have to have a huge burst of energy to go, "Sheesh, how am I going to? This stuff's no good." So you'd have to improvise something or create something or try to work with the ware and try to figure out, how do you make this visually and orally acceptable, entertaining? Nowadays, the scripts are just so much better, that you don't have to feel that way. You feel like the script's coming to you, you can just relax. You don't have to drive the boat.

— Bill Murray

“You cannot pray them out of hell.”

— Bill Murray

If I run into someone on the street, that's one thing. But answering mail for a living? I like a job where you can play and act kind of goofy and have some fun.

— Bill Murray

“Morocco is the greatest. I should be getting money from the Moroccans because I'm just telling everyone that it's a wonderful place to go.”

— Bill Murray

“I know how to be sour. I know that taste.”

— Bill Murray

“Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future isn't here yet, whatever it's going to be. So, all there is, is this. The present. That's it.”

— Bill Murray

“I don't really read the reviews - but I remember one I read a long time ago that said I had a face like a potato.”

— Bill Murray

“I didn't get into this position by being like a stiff sitting on the set in a folding chair. I did it by walking around on the streets and stirring things up.”

— Bill Murray

“The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe ...”

— Bill Murray

“Drinking again? Go to hell. All I ever do is make some movies that made a lot of money now leave me alone, I want to have some fun.”

— Bill Murray

You work, you get paid, you drink.

— Bill Murray

I kinda like this Jay-Z thing, where he's retired, but he keeps doing shows. I think I beat him to that. If you say you're retired, people don't bother you so much, and then if you want to do something, you can do it.

— Bill Murray

“There's definitely a lot of trash that comes with the prize of being famous. It's a nice gift, but there's a lot of wrapping and paper and junk to cut through. Back then, when a movie came out and people saw you on the street, their reaction was so supercharged that it was scary. It would frighten other people. It used to really rattle me. I mean, everybody would love to have their clothes torn off by a mob of girls, but being screamed at is different.”

— Bill Murray

“If Google doesn't know the answer, then it's not a question”

— Bill Murray

“There are a lot of actors that are more talented than me at Second City who quit it before they even got to a paying status. Weird luck. I had no other option.”

— Bill Murray

“I'm over the Oscar thing. I feel that if you really want an Oscar, you're in trouble. It's like wanting to be married - you'll take anybody. If you want the Oscar really badly, it becomes a naked desire and ambition. It becomes very unattractive. I've seen it.”

— Bill Murray

“The human condition means that we can zone out and forget what the hell we're doing.”

— Bill Murray

“That's the reason I'm not the one that's dead because the attraction of the fast life is very powerful.”

— Bill Murray