James Lipton Quotes

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?

The difference - the fundamental difference between theater acting and film acting is that film acting is disjunctive.

I think that anybody's craft is fascinating. A taxi driver talking about taxi driving is going to be very, very interesting.

When you're talking about the thing that is most important to someone, they're liable to feel something strong.

Comedians don't laugh. They're too busy analyzing why it's funny or not.

I must confess that when I'm alone in my study, here in New York, writing; that's when I'm happy.

A good day's writing, when I turn off my computer after I know that I've written okay, or as well as I can write, that's a day well spent.

There's only one man I've called a coward, and that's Brian Doyle-Murray.

Our language, one of our most precious natural resources, deserves at least as much protection as our woodlands, streams and whooping cranes.

The definition of genius, really, should be that that person can do what the rest of us have to learn how to do.

Geniuses always think it's easier than we make it out to be.

Olivier was another case of a genius, who couldn't understand why anybody would have any trouble doing this, because for him it came so easily.

The foundation for film acting is stage acting.

Life is just a Box of Chocolates.

I wanted when we began this to have a conversation, the kind that you're able to have, and the only way I knew how to do it was not to have a pre-interview.

I would say that writing, both the act of writing, and of course reading of other people's work is, for me, supreme joy.

I became an actor by accident, not by design.

I'd been on all the television programs as an actor, as a writer, as a director, as a producer.

I'll miss it until the day I die, and I'm convinced to this day that I can get on a horse and jump a course of fences satisfactorily. It doesn't leave you.

If I were to ask you for example right now to go back with me and define those moments in your life that shaped you as a person and you began to reexamine them, something would happen.

I became a professional actor in Detroit and I was able to earn some money. It was a good job because it permitted me to study. It fit perfectly with school.

Always accepting the greatest joy of all is the time that I get to spend with my wife.

I love writing. I like reading, other people, not myself.

They change. They're different. There are no two alike, that's the miracle of it. But if they have something to teach the students. You can see them writing during the show.

I may be writing well, I may be writing poorly, but I enjoy the act of writing and sometimes when it turns out okay, I feel an elation that is incomparable.

Hackman is able to live in the moment which means there is nothing for him at that split second than what is occurring in the scene.

Landing the airplane I think is the most difficult thing that I've every learned to do in my life.

Our language one of our most precious natural resources deserves at least as much protection as our woodlands streams and whooping cranes.