Top 60 Oscar Isaac Quotes

I remember the first time my mind was blown by an actor was Tim Curry, because I loved ‘Clue’ when I was a kid, and then I was watching the movie ‘Legend,’ and the Devil suddenly smiles, and I was like, ‘It’s the same guy!’ It was a total Keyser Soeze moment.

My dad always played a lot of music, so I heard him playing all the time, and then I decided that I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I got an acoustic and started taking lessons. I wanted to be able to shred like Yngwie Malmsteen.

I was never much of a singer. I was terrible. It’s embarrassing: I was trying to sound like everybody else. I went through a big Cure phase, so I was trying to do that kind of dramatic voice.

My dad was a doctor, but he was just always, like, going from hospital to hospital for some reason.

When I moved to New York, I had to let my band know that I couldn’t play anymore, and that was difficult to leave that behind.

J. J. Abrams is amazing.

My dad was a huge Bob Dylan fan, so we listened to his music, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and all that kind of stuff.

Humans are mutants, everything’s a mutant – things that evolve.

The very first proper play I did was ‘Godspell,’ and I played the guitar for it, and I had a small part in a high school play. And before that, in sixth grade, I wrote a musical about Noah’s ark.

The self-made man that some people believe is a myth? It could be, because you do it on the backs of other people.

What’s funny in ‘The Mayor of MacDougal Street’ is how Dave Van Ronk talks a lot about the time and how exciting it was and how electric it was.

I actually started playing in little cafes around New York, and I have a lot of good friends of mine who are musicians who are struggling in New York.

I started off thinking that I just needed one shot to prove myself, but then I realised that I was only going to learn about acting by doing it.

Most actors, if you ask them if they play guitar, they’ll say they played guitar for 20 years, but what they really mean is they’ve owned a guitar for 20 years.

I get attached to things: I wear the same jeans for a year.

With Shakespeare, there’s no subtext; you’re speaking exactly what you’re thinking constantly.

Being someone with Latin roots, so many doors are constantly closed for you because people put you in a category, and the thing I’ve always wanted to avoid is categorisation.

I was interested in the war part of ‘Star Wars,’ so I started reading about what it’s like to go to war, what that does to you psychically, about the adrenaline and the rush.

People resent movies that try to tell them exactly what to feel.

Talent is very hot.

Jessica Lange was my biggest crush when I was a kid.

For me, with a character, you start with the shoes.

I guess ‘Scarface’ was the Cuban Al Pacino.

It’d be crazy to say just because an artist is not successful that means he’s not talented. I don’t think anybody really believes that, but sometimes it feels that way.

I like films that take their time a little bit more and don’t show you all of their cards right away, characters that are conflicted and contradicting and seem one way at first and then suddenly turn out to be something else.

I’ve never been interested in celebrity.

I think that when you decide to dedicate yourself to creative endeavors and surround yourself with people who are creative, you very quickly learn how hard it is to survive doing those kinds of things, not to mention make a living at them.

There’s very few geniuses that come and revolutionize everything. For the rest of us that want to be artists and have something to say, it’s a lot of work and a lot of luck.

I was always – maybe stupidly so – very confident.

I think it’s good to be a little more fearless in saying what you feel. In not being scared of the repercussions of that.

There’s nothing scarier than unlimited choices.

You watch ‘Whale Rider,’ and I defy you to not get teary-eyed at the end there.

I had a great conversation with Tom Waits, of all people.

In the 1960s, there was a forward way of speaking and inflection.

I had an audition where Josh Brolin was pelting me with his personality. I didn’t get the part.

Anybody who dedicates himself to exploring the human condition, there’s always a detached eye that’s watching. In any situation, a little part of me is observing it, to see if there are any raw materials to create something else later.

‘Cool’ is detached and emotionally cool. My instinct is to battle anything that seems overly cool.

I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s, to go back and reinvent a movie.

I like being like a chameleon who transforms himself with each role.

What you wear can be such an indicator of so many things. You know, how you feel, how you want others to perceive you. So, that is an absolutely essential part of building a character.

I think Shakespeare really got it. He was the first one to introduce psychology to villains and give them a real point of view.

I don’t know if they were all functioning, but I did play in a bunch of bands.

A movie set is like a petri dish for neuroses, you know? It’s just, like, egos and weird personalities and, more than anything, fear.

I’m really sick of anthems. Every song has to be a very big singalong thing – it feels very Eighties. There are a lot of ‘whoah whoa whoahs,’ this stadium thing. You’re even getting that from some of the ‘folk’ groups. I can’t stand it.

I grow up in the States, in Miami, but I was born in Guatemala, and my father’s Cuban, and in ‘Body of Lies,’ I played an Iraqi.

There’s very few people – like Shakespeare – who, no matter what, were gonna do what they did. For the rest of us, there’s a lot of events that have to happen in order for things to end up the way they are.

I’ve always liked acoustic blues. I liked Bob Dylan a lot.

My family are huge ‘Star Wars’ fans.

Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.

A personal game-changer was when Ridley Scott cast me as King John, the King of England, for ‘Robin Hood.’

Advice? Look at your pay statements.

‘Mojave’ is a very wild, throwback film with these two dudes going after each other.

I really just like characters who you don’t know where they stand for a long while. It’s like people. You hang out with them for 10 years, and then all of a sudden they do something, and you say, ‘Who are you?’ That’s more interesting. In life and on-screen.

I come from a place where everything about me, even my body language, is saying: I mean you no harm. I smile, I laugh. Basic stuff for most people.

‘Drive’ is a genre piece, and a lot of times we don’t get really sophisticated genre films.

I think romantic passion is wanting a little something in return.

If you start trying to communicate ideas, I think you don’t allow the audience to see themselves.

It’s nice to create a character, not just within two scenes, but within the journey of a whole movie. It’s fun to do that.

I’m so bored by business and money.

I’m very happy to have the heritage that I do, but I’m not wanting to be ‘the Latino actor.’ I just want to be ‘an actor.’