Top 50 James Spader Quotes

I didn’t watch much television growing up, and before I did ‘Boston Legal,’ I had no understanding of what it was like for a viewer to look forward to finding out what was going to happen the next week.

I have very, very strong obsessive-compulsive issues. I’m very particular.

When I’m not working, I don’t get my hair cut. I don’t know what the next character looks like.

I think that Barack Obama faces a level of divisiveness, and I don’t mean on a national level in terms of the North and the South and the Civil War; I really mean just politically.

I think also there’s no question that Lincoln has been diluted down through history in some way, almost by becoming as iconic as he is, in a way he’s become diluted.

I know that one’s visibility is very high on television, even with an unsuccessful show! With a successful role, it’s even higher.

Every film you work on is different, and that’s part of what it’s like for anybody who works on a film, is to learn how to work with others. Learn from top to bottom. Actors have to learn how to work with the director and the director has to learn how to work with actors, and that’s not just those two departments.

There are some actors who are very good at developing things, who have… ‘things in the pipeline.’ I am abysmal at that kind of thing, loathe it, and am a terrible planner. Unless I’m showing up on the set and acting, I prefer to have nothing to do with the actual business of being an actor.

I am not very responsible economically. I have a history working on films for years and years, and by the time I was starting the next film, I was starting from zero again.

I grew up a Red Sox fan. I grew up going to Fenway Park and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Science Museum and Symphony Hall and going to the Common, walking around. My whole family at different times lived and worked in Boston.

The first perk of theater is the girls.

Every film you work on is different, and that’s part of what it’s like for anybody who works on a film, is to learn how to work with others. Learn from top to bottom. Actors have to learn how to work with the director and the director has to learn how to work with actors, and that’s not just those two departments.

I’m paid well and am demanding of the people I work with, and therefore, I feel I should bring a lot.

When I’m not working, I don’t get my hair cut. I don’t know what the next character looks like.

It’s fun to explore behavior that you can’t explore in your own life, so you fool around with it in acting.

I pretty quickly move from an idea to possibilities for execution. If there’s one advantage, I think, with working in television for even a short amount of time is trying to gain a faculty for processing a storyline or an idea and how to then best implement that and execute that as swiftly as possible.

I’m most drawn to characters who are compelling and repellant at the same time, very often right at the same moment, and who are frightening and funny all at once.

My career had been split pretty evenly between good guys and bad guys until I finally grew into myself enough to play a decent antihero, where you can combine the two.

The unknown is very appealing to me. I like to be surprised. I love the idea I might know less at the end of reading something than I do at the beginning.

The script is the coloring book that you’re given, and your job is to figure out how to color it in. And also when and where to color outside the lines.

I’ve never been a big TV watcher.

The protagonists that I’ve played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don’t make it, they certainly disrupt things. It’s fun to do that in life as well. But I don’t think I ever played myself.

I think the most significant change in my life is the decision to do a series. An hourlong dramatic television series on a broadcast network swallows you and chews you up and refuses to spit you out. You’re making a decision that’s going to be a profound and significant impact on the practical aspects of your life.

I don’t think anybody in the entertainment industry or in politics is surprised by the fact that those worlds are rife with promiscuity and irresponsibility – certainly a lack of accountability.

I’ve had a lazy career. Sometimes one film a year, sometimes none. I’m walking around in the street and doing this other thing, living, that I’m much more interested in. I just do some acting on the side.

I lost interest in firearms because we had a dog that was scared to death of the sound of a rifle shot.

There are some actors who are very good at developing things, who have… ‘things in the pipeline.’ I am abysmal at that kind of thing, loathe it, and am a terrible planner. Unless I’m showing up on the set and acting, I prefer to have nothing to do with the actual business of being an actor.

Acting is a great way to make a living, especially when I consider what my alternatives were and probably still are. I mean, you are only making movies. It is a lot less pressure than being a surgeon; although it seemed like the only other thing that I was qualified for was manual labour.

If I don’t need the money, I don’t work. I’m going to spend time with my family and friends, and I’m going to travel and read and listen to music and try to learn a little bit more about how to be a human being, as opposed to learning how to be somebody else.

Acting is easy and fun. You earn a lot of money, and you bang out with girls. The profession is given tremendous significance within our society, but it’s not really worthy of it.

I’ve never been a big TV watcher.

Working in theater, film, or television are three different jobs for an actor, and I accept them as such.

Love is the one emotion actors allow themselves to believe.

Love is the one emotion actors allow themselves to believe.

I didn’t really look like a character actor, yet those were the roles I loved to play. If you were a character actor who didn’t necessarily look like a character actor, you had to play bad guys.

I pretty quickly move from an idea to possibilities for execution. If there’s one advantage, I think, with working in television for even a short amount of time is trying to gain a faculty for processing a storyline or an idea and how to then best implement that and execute that as swiftly as possible.

I think the most significant change in my life is the decision to do a series. An hourlong dramatic television series on a broadcast network swallows you and chews you up and refuses to spit you out. You’re making a decision that’s going to be a profound and significant impact on the practical aspects of your life.

Sometimes with people their work is the most important thing to them, and sometimes the work enables you to do other things that are more important to you. I probably am closer to that.

I’m not a planner. I like to try something different, to just see what happens.

The first perk of theater is the girls.

My career had been split pretty evenly between good guys and bad guys until I finally grew into myself enough to play a decent antihero, where you can combine the two.

I’m not someone so much interested in exploring a slice of life unless that is down the corridor, around the corner, up the alley, and down the rabbit hole. That, I like.

I don’t think movies or television have any basis in reality at all. It’s all just pretend. That’s what’s fun about it.

I grew up a Red Sox fan. I grew up going to Fenway Park and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Science Museum and Symphony Hall and going to the Common, walking around. My whole family at different times lived and worked in Boston.

Working in theater, film, or television are three different jobs for an actor, and I accept them as such.

I think that Barack Obama faces a level of divisiveness, and I don’t mean on a national level in terms of the North and the South and the Civil War; I really mean just politically.

I’ve had a lazy career. Sometimes one film a year, sometimes none. I’m walking around in the street and doing this other thing, living, that I’m much more interested in. I just do some acting on the side.

I played cops and robbers and pirates and all the rest when I was a kid, but I didn’t want to grow up and be an actor and play cops and robbers and pirates. I wanted to grow up and be that, be cops and robbers and pirates.

If I don’t need the money, I don’t work. I’m going to spend time with my family and friends, and I’m going to travel and read and listen to music and try to learn a little bit more about how to be a human being, as opposed to learning how to be somebody else.

I’ve made a lot of very small movies that may not have had a large initial audience. Then it shows up on cable.