Dustin Hoffman Quotes

The two basic items necessary to sustain life are sunshine and coconut milk.

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.

Depressed, anxious, sad, frightened? Yes. But I've never been bored.

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me... aren't you?

This is your life. Now go make it the one you've always wanted.

I believe - though I may be wrong, because I'm no expert - that this war is about what most wars are about: hegemony, money, power and oil.

I don't like the fact that I have to get older so fast, but I like the fact that I'm aging so well.

You spend so much of your life basing yourself on what you think other people think of you. Then you realise that maybe one of the purposes of life is not to care.

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?

What makes divorce happen is that you can't be in the same space any more, for whatever reason - but the love stays. And that's the killer. That's where the vehemence and anger and rage comes from.

One thing about being successful is that I stopped being afraid of dying. Once you're a star you're dead already. You're embalmed.

I love acting, and I'm not going to determine what I do based on what I fear other people might think. I do what I want to do.

Blame is for God and small children.

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

If you can get out there and say I'm going to...I'm willing to fail at what I feel is right, that's it.

I got into acting so that I could meet girls. Pretty girls came later. First, I wanted to start off with someone with two legs, who'd smile at me and look soft.

If you have this enormous talent, it's got you by the balls, it's a demon. You can't be a family man and a husband and a caring person and be that animal. Dickens wasn't that nice a guy.

The Academy Awards are obscene, dirty . . . no better than a beauty contest.

I think the most insulting thing you can do to a director is to challenge when he or she is satisfied with your interpretation.

To have a successful marriage, a man must, on a fundamental level be scared shitless of his wife.

If you're waiting for the job, you're dead.

37 seconds, well used, is a lifetime.

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.

We need to band together as a unit every day, especially to conquer the strength of the AIDS virus.

I decided to become an actor because I was failing in school and I needed the credits.

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

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

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

There's too many interesting women I have…not had the experience to know in this life because I have been brainwashed.

Now, I'm simply working with people I want to work with. I just want to have good working experiences and let the dice fall where they may.

There is something unnatural about marriage. These two people are not going to be the same people in a few years. The trick is to live your own life while sharing the same space.

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

Peter Pan, prepare to meet thy doom.

It isn’t a big jump in the imagination to see yourself living alone like Mr Hoppy.

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

I decided a long time ago but sometimes it takes you 40 years to get around to doing something - and that's the truthful answer.

If there is no direct threat why are we invading?

That's what we're all looking for, the place where the work leads us.

Canada is like a nice family living over a biker bar . . . They keep telling the downstairs neighbors to keep down the noise, people are trying to sleep.

Life stinks, but that doesn't mean you don't enjoy it.

But I would reinvent myself if I could. As a sexy leading man! We all would like that, but I don't know how to.

Next to that kid, we all look like onions.

The better you are as a parent, the richer the nest you've built, the more difficult it is for your kids to leave. So they have to invent things to dislike about you. And they're brilliant at it.

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

Lightbulbs die, my sweet. I will depart.

I did a movie called Marathon Man and it was one of my best memories.

I'd like to thank my parents for not practicing birth control.

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.

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

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