John Slattery Quotes

The rule of surfing is never tell anyone where you go.

I was a horrible limo driver: I ran out of gas with passengers in the back and I used to get lost on a regular basis.

My mom used to wear the fragrance Poison when I was younger, and I remember that scent and the purple bottle. That was my first [perfume] memory.

You have to fight for what you need to fight for.

Memories are just stories we tell ourselves about our past; and that's often why they don't match when we've shared the same experiences with someone.

We all went through that teen phase of wearing that really soft fragrance. As I got older, I started loving men's fragrances and cologne. I was so attracted to men's cologne; I would spray it all over me.

When I was growing up, the top movies dealt with grown-up, complex emotions.

I don't have to worry about how my movies sell because I'm not the guy in front.

But the path you end up on means that you have to close a lot of doors, too.

And I don't want to jump out of an airplane - I've done that.

I guess, you make a big studio film, you spend a lot of money on it and you hope people go see it. It's really risky.

I think the moments that are difficult for anybody are when you see what your life could be, if only you had the courage to take the steps needed.

I've never directed anything before 'Mad Men,' so I don't feel I have any advice for the other directors.

My wife tells me I need to learn to be more patient with my son.

The good thing about directing yourself is that you get over yourself.

I'm a little kid at heart, so my eyes light up when everything is lit.

I do voiceovers, but being on-camera and selling something? I wasn't really interested. And then I thought, well, wait a minute. Everybody's selling something. When you turn on the tube... And then if you go to Europe or Asia, everyone is selling something. All the guys that don't want to be seen selling something here are selling something there. So I thought what the hell?

I'm proud of myself that I had the courage to experiment with crazy hairstyles and some fashion things.

I used to be more insecure about working, and I guess the older I get, the more rich my life becomes, I don't need to work as much as I used to. I mean, New York is a hard town to be in when you have nothing else to do besides show business. It's brutal, especially as an actor, because you sit around with this low - grade fever of anxiety, waiting for the phone to ring. Or waiting for something.

A painting can't be everything. You have to stop, at some point. It has to be finished, if you want anyone to see it. Some people just continue to work on things, forever. I don't know which is better.

If [being confident stems from] a self-esteem issue, it's important to embrace the things you might define as so-called imperfections - because something that you might call an imperfection, someone else might find so amazing and so beautiful. It's all in how you embrace yourself, your faults, and your mistakes in life. There's no better way to learn and become a better person than to go through those moments.

Let's face it, making movies is all risk. Most of the time, batting average-wise, the reward does not outweigh the risk.

I think I gravitate towards people who express themselves in a simple and funny way.

Characters can become boring. That's what's tricky about television. It goes on and on - you're playing this same character for five seasons and it gets easy to fall into just walking on the set and assuming you know how to play a scene.

You put a movie star or a bunch of movie stars in a movie, it doesn't mean people are gonna go see it. It's been proven time and time again.

I've dyed my hair a million times and it looks terrible, always. It just looks fake. And it doesn't make me look that much younger.

Viewers can hate a character and at the same time can't take their eyes off of him.

When I first started, I was kind of surprised that anyone would ever hire me at all. So I took everything that I was offered.

I like to try the scene over and over, but given the confines of television, I don't have that option.

I've done a lot of pilots. A lot of shows. You're young and you do a job just because you know someone gave you a job.