Top 131 Kevin Spacey Quotes

I am different than some people would like me to be. I just don’t buy into that the personal can be political.

If you look back through history in the United States, there have been very few landslide elections. Half the country always voted for someone else.

I am now a commander of the British Empire.

The next day I was in my school’s production of All My Sons. This was the performance where I realized something was happening between me and the audience that I hadn’t recognized before.

I’m not out there trying to get press for myself nor am I trying to convince anybody that I’m living any kind of a life. I’m actually trying to convince people: I don’t want you to know what I’m living, because it’s none of your business.

I’m not a writer, and I don’t want there to be any mistake about that.

One can never take the cynicism one comes across in life too seriously.

I’m able to hang up the character with the costume at the end of the movie.

What I like about Britain is that I can live a normal life here.

I might have lived in England for the last several years, but I’m still an American citizen and I have not given up my right to privacy.

We’re going to see a lot of companies that have been portals of entertainment become producers.

I’ve never done a movie that’s shot more than 40 days because I just don’t do those kinds of films.

I’m not going to make general comments about the British press.

Living in London has become incredible. I suppose it’s easy to love where you live if you love what you’re doing. But this is not just a visit: it’s my home.

I accept the fact that some things don’t go the way you hope.

Maybe there are people who are gamers who haven’t seen movies I have made, or the movies I have made have made no impression on them at all.

It’s not easy to sustain a long career, and sometimes I don’t even think about how long I’ve been doing it.

I open myself up every time I walk on screen and give you everything that I am. There are parts of me that are in every movie that I’ve done. That to me is what my job is.

For me, coming to work every day has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be.

The process of doing a play is an organic one, and the process of doing a film is totally inorganic.

While data can only tell you what has happened in the past, it can in some ways give you a sense of what might be of interest to an audience in the future.

‘The 24 Hour Plays’ is a quite brilliant, exhilarating event for everyone concerned.

I have never played a game in my life.

I certainly identify with the role of mentor and, to some degree, maybe teacher. I do a lot of work with kids at the Old Vic.

Whether that’s positive or not, people are talking about the Old Vic Theater again with passion and commitment and controversy and debate.

I am so leading the life that I want and wanted and dreamed of as a kid. I’m trying very hard not to abuse it or take advantage of it.

People say, ‘If you open a movie online at the same time as in movie theatres, no one is going to go to the movies.’ That’s just not true. People love to go out and have a shared experience; they always will.

I think people love it when anybody acts bad; it’s not particular to me.

I think that what is truly unfortunate is when an entire party makes a decision that they’re going to block every single thing that a president wants to accomplish. It’s very – it’s very hard to get anything done in those circumstances.

Cable TV has become where the best actors, writers and directors have gone to work because they are allowed to do character-driven stories.

The audience wants control. They want freedom.

I’m not revolted by Washington.

I want to do better. I want to produce better stories. I want to do better plays.

The relationship with the cast has everything to do with how a performance develops, and in a sense that while you’re discovering a play in the course of rehearsal with the director, you’re also discovering it with your fellow actors. We’re all in it together.

I’m supposed to convince you, for two hours, that I’m somebody else. Now if you know everything about my life, if you think you’ve got me figured out and you think you know all my dark secrets, how am I ever going to convince you that I’m somebody else?

Where the gaming world is going – and certainly Activision proved it by hiring me – is being willing to push and bend and move in a new direction of actually capturing the character and storytelling.

I have wanted to have children. I do want to have children.

Clarence Darrow was a unique and courageous man. Several of my favourite actors have played Darrow… Henry Fonda, Orson Welles and Spencer Tracy.

It’s extremely dangerous to compare anyone else to Shakespeare.

It’s so easy for us to misperceive and see the things in others that we want to see. And, when we’re wrong, and often we’re dead wrong, we miss the truth.

While the sciences are hugely important, let us not leave behind a child’s imagination.

The Old Vic has always been first and foremost an actors’ theatre, a home for great talent and memorable performances.

I’ve been trying to take this journey over the last four years of getting away from playing manipulative and villainous characters and playing characters that are affected by what happens to them as opposed to unaffected.

Success is like death. The more successful you become, the higher the houses in the hills get and the higher the fences get.

You just play what a writer writes, in terms of what a character chooses to do and how a character chooses to deal with their various relationships.

Whether it’s ‘Veep’ or ‘Homeland’ or ‘The West Wing’ – which is a more idealised version of democracy – people are fascinated by politics.

It’s a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.

I don’t play villainy. I wouldn’t even know how to play it.

I don’t live a lie. You have to understand that people who choose not to discuss their personal lives are not living a lie. That is a presumption that people jump to.

If you’re lucky enough to do well, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down.

My mother always, always, always thought that I was going to be famous. Thought that I was going to win Oscars. In fact, I believe I accepted the Oscar as a ketchup bottle many a time in front of my mother in the kitchen. ‘I’d like to thank the Academy,’ I said with a ketchup bottle.

I became a bit of a jerk. A kind of a nasty jerk.

Some politicians that I’ve seen have been brilliant with the public. They almost speak with the skill of an actor.

Meeting the person you are going to be playing is very unique.

Exposure to the arts and culture is enormously valuable.

I believe this: If an actor wants a role or wants to work with somebody, then you do everything within reason to try to get that role. If they want you to audition, you audition. If they want you to screen-test, you screen-test. If they want you to come and tap-dance in their hallway, you tap-dance in their hallway.

Partisan rancour and party politics and ideology have got in the way of compromise – and compromise is the only thing that has ever made politics successful.

Am I arrogant? I’ve been arrogant, sure; everybody’s been arrogant.

It takes stamina to get up like an athlete every single night, seven to eight performances a week, 20 weeks in a row. And there are many young performers who only learn their craft in the two minute bits it takes to film a scene. You never learn the arc of storytelling, the arc of a character that way.

I’m not someone who’s led my life trying to get publicity; I’d rather do my work and go home.

Storytelling helps us understand each other, translate the issues of our times, and the tools of theater and film can be powerful in helping young people to develop communication/collaboration skills, let alone improving their own confidence.

I’ve always found it strange that a director can hire any designer he wants from any country. But if he hires a foreign actor, it’s like he’s stolen the crown jewels and run across the river with them.

I’m always taken aback by things that are successful that I think are just crap, and then I’m completely surprised when things I do end up being successful because you walk into things and you never know… It’s just really remarkable.

Why is ‘Game of Thrones’ the most pirated show in the history of TV? Because people can’t get it fast enough, that’s why.

I like being able to go to a local pub and have great food and particularly love pubs that welcome my dogs.

As the years have gone on, I find one of the dangers of watching dailies… is you fall in love with moments.

I always thought that, in a way, you want your Superman to be a total unknown.

I think that there was a period of time – and I would reckon it was about 12 years – where I was just determined to see if I could build a career for myself.

Fundamentally, I like to accomplish things.

I would love to do much more singing; it’s just one of those things where I can’t quite describe what it feels like when you’re standing in front of a forty piece orchestra, and there’s nothing between you and an audience but a microphone. It’s like strapping yourself to a locomotive, and I love it.