Top 133 Jeff Bridges Quotes

You prep, you prep, you prep. And on the day that you film, you let all of that go. I try to achieve emptiness as much as possible – the Zen thing – to let the deal come out of that nothing.

I love westerns, I’d love to make more of them.

I look back at my filmography, and I’m pretty jazzed with the stuff I’ve been part of. They’re all movies I’d like to see.

It’s interesting to explore the darker side, but the hero piece is interesting as well. It’s like choosing between comedy or drama. I like to do both.

You can relate to somebody’s pain and you have compassion, which can lead to intimacy.

I’m a chairperson for ‘No Kid Hungry’, a campaign for poor American children.

As far as 3-D goes, I don’t know if that will stay very long because things are moving so rapidly.

Sometimes, you can not click with somebody, and it can feel awkward.

Just getting something in the books that makes sure people with mental illness and terrorists can’t get guns would be a good idea.

Movies are like magic tricks.

My mom wasn’t a movie star.

I remember being on a black-and-white set all day and then going out into daylight and being amazed by the colour.

I think my love of journalizing my life comes from my mom.

In a marriage, every fight is the same fight, over and over again, in different forms.

Often, when I finish a film, I’ll have that feeling inside me: ‘I never want to do this ever again. I don’t want to pretend anymore. I want to be myself and do that.’

We’re here for such a short period of time. Live like you’re already dead, man. Have a good time. Do your best. Let it all come ripping right through you.

I used to read comics when I was a kid.

It’s a wonderful metaphor, catching a wave, for how you can look at other challenges in your life.

I have hesitation making any kind of decision, really in my life. I’m really slow at it.

When I was really young, my mom enrolled me in dance classes.

I’d maybe done about 12 movies when I decided that this was what I was going to do.

My M.O. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I’m in this wonderful position to be able to do that.

I love marriage.

Execution is everything.

It’s the same assignment on every part: you want to create a real world, and the tone of it is a little different on each movie. You have to find your tone and work within that to make it as real so the audience can really engage in the story you’re telling.

The first thing that pops into my mind when it comes to playing cowboys is my father, Lloyd Bridges. When I was a little kid, I loved to dress up like a cowboy – put on the boots, hat, and walk around. He was in a lot of westerns, and my dad loved to ride.

When I’m working, I’m very purposeful and everything else gets out of focus. Something I’ve had to work on together with my wife is how to acknowledge each other in the midst of this and keep the relationship going.

There’s kind of a Zen aspect to bowling. The pins are either staying up or down before you even throw your arm back. It’s kind of a mind-set. You want to be in this perfect mind-set before you released the ball.

One of the things that I find so exciting about life is that you’re constantly surprised. You never know what’s going to happen, and it’s certainly like that making movies; every once in a while, one will come along that transcends all of your expectations.

I’m a pretty basic surfer.

Nowadays it seems more and more like the ‘business’ in ‘show business’ is underlined, and there are campaigns, and it’s all part of getting people in to see the movies.

I’m constantly falling deeper in love with my wife.

Ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance. I love to draw and paint; I do ceramics and photography. I’m interested in a lot of creative stuff.

My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I’m in this wonderful position to be able to do that. The reason I do that is because I know what it takes once I engage, what that means for me personally and for my wife.

What I learned most from my father wasn’t anything he said; it was just the way he behaved. He loved his work so much that, whenever he came on set, he brought that with him, and other people rose to it.

Sometimes I think about retiring but not stopping work. Just ‘re-tiring’ – put on some new tires and go on to do something else.

It’s funny. You succeed, but now where are you gonna go from there? I’ve got to keep proving that I can laugh or cry more real each time.

I gotta take notes when things occur to me.

I’ve been interested in music since I was a teenager, always writing songs.

I’m light and airy.

I think it’s an impulse for human beings to want to suffer less, and we’re kind of addicted to comfort at all costs – at least, I am.

I like to know where the camera is.

My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me.

One of the tough things about being an actor, probably the hardest thing, is getting your foot in the door, and my father handled that for me at a very early age.

You know, I thought we could use a good myth about technology to help guide us through these particular modern waters right now.

I like people.

I’ve produced a couple of films and really enjoyed starting it from the very beginning and seeing it all the way through to the end; that was very gratifying.

Do I have a long-term plan? Kind of. I have a general direction, I think. But it’s funny what comes down the pike.

I come from a family of teasers myself. My grandfather was from Liverpool, and he had a dry sense of humor, and he would tease us terribly. My brother Beau was so skilled in his teasing that he could get a rise out of me by simply pointing at me.

Work takes me away from my wife, Sue, and my life in Santa Barbara.

My father was so in love with showbiz, all the different aspects – what we’re doing here, making the movies, everything about it.

Fame really works against actors, in a way, because our anonymity is a wonderful thing for us.

I’m not counting any chickens.

As far as the lack of hits goes, I think perhaps it’s because I’ve played a lot of different roles and have not created a persona that the public can latch on to. I have played everything from psychopathic killers to romantic leading men, and in picking such diverse roles I have avoided typecasting.

Making films is sort of like you’re pulling off a magic trick. It’s sort of like an illusion. It’s not real but you want it to appear real, and all kinds of things go into that, from the clothes you’re wearing to the make-up, to the light.

I hate it when there’s a good movie, someone overhypes it and I’m disappointed that I don’t like it more.

If you’re like me, I get hooked into to-do lists, you know. I’ll say I checked that off. Okay, I did that. And you have all these things you’re doing.

I’m at this time in life when I have to take the opportunities I have left.

You know, it’s kind of a shame in a way but the more seasoned directors a lot of times have more difficult getting a job than first time guys. New kid on the block kind of thing.

I’m also working closely with a group called the Amazon Conservation Team, helping with the rainforest in South America.

Life’s picking up speed.

I’ve got to watch my back, so I can’t put on too much weight.

As far as Beau is concerned, we’re on the same team, we root for each other. If my parts are slightly more attractive, or are perceived that way by others, he’s very content.

As an actor, a role can be a great excuse not to be in shape. I mean, you wouldn’t want to see the Dude with a six-pack, so you eat that Haagen-Dazs. My weight goes up and down.

Pretend was a big part of my childhood.

I haven’t been to Comic-Con.

I said I’m going to vote for Hillary. But my philosophy is that everything’s workable. If Trump is president, I’ll work with that guy. I don’t know if he’s terrible or what. He’s refreshing in that he doesn’t speak in that political way. I don’t quite understand why everybody hates Hillary so much.

One thing I want to do is create something called Ring Around Congress. It would be a state deal and also a national thing, where the kids, as a field trip, will go and join hands around Congress and give the politicians report cards on how they’re voting on hunger issues.

We’re here for such a short period of time.

I remember when I was a kid, with the acting thing, I resented it because, you know, you don’t want to do what your parents want you to do.

Loving movies myself, I know when I see a film with someone with a strong persona, it’s hard to overlay another character on top of that.

I’d done about 10 movies before I decided I wanted to make acting the main thrust of my career.

If you change partners every time it gets tough or you get a little dissatisfied, then I don’t think you get the richness that’s available in a long-term relationship.

I’m not locked into playing one guy.