Bill Oberst Jr. Quotes

Take every job. Learn everybody's name. Show up early. Know who you are and know who you're not. Stop dreaming and start trying.

Lincoln is me. He is America. He is what makes us a great nation and a dangerous nation, all wrapped up in one man.

Ask questions. Listen. Be quiet. Be willing to make a fool of yourself. Be willing to be completely exposed and to give all you've got and to be rejected for your troubles. But expect magic to happen. It just might. And don't worry about winning the audition, just win the room.

If someone asked for advice on being an actor I'd say "Don't. It's a hard life." And if they walked away I'd be happy to have spared them years of misery.

The live audience is a blind date. The camera is a hungry lover. One wants to be wined and dined and seduced and then decide where the evening will go. The other knows how it wants to be touched, wants it now and can damn well tell if you are lying about it. Both are fickle. Both feel good. Depends on your mood.

I want to be Lon Chaney. I want to be Karloff. I want to help people escape the mundane world. I want to make their skins crawl. And I want them to love it every bit as much as I do.

I love swimming in the darker seas, so even if I play a noble guy (well, like Lincoln for instance) I am pre-disposed to try and show the conflict; the regret; the less-than-perfect choices that any human faces. That's what I like and it seems to be what the camera likes to see me do.

Lincoln could be on the moon. He's still Lincoln.

All you have to do to be a camera actor is tell the truth.

The fact that Abraham Lincoln ever, ever became President is either a freak accident of history... or destiny; God's providence to America.

Abraham Lincoln was a melancholy man, so he had a dark side that appeals to horror fans.

Abraham Lincoln is resolute, honest, has the best interest of the nation at heart, and he's as ugly as homemade Sunday sin, so he is modest, too. I'd vote for that in an undead heartbeat.

Abraham Lincoln is the guy who could never be elected today, but whom we desperately wish we could elect.