Judd Hirsch Quotes

Some stage directions you just simply have to throw away.

If you're playing the character, you could say to yourself in 16 different ways, 'What if that didn't bother me?' 'What if I knew exactly what he was talking about?' 'What if I didn't get excited?'

I was not going to be an actor. I was an engineer in physics. That's what I did: I graduated with a physics degree, and I had become a little bit distressed that I'd have to work for somebody - anybody! And I thought, "I'm not going to make a mark on anything. If I can't express myself, then I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with this life." I think it was just one of those germs that said, "No, no, no, you've got to say things. You've got to tell people things. You've got to express your opinion in this life, because that's how you started."

What's the inside of a shark smell like? I always thought it would smell like chicken.

When you get a chance to work with Aaron Sorkin, you don't say no. You drop everything you're doing.

If I'm not moved by what happens at the end of this play, then I've completely failed, and so has the play, and so has our production. And if that's the case then there really isn't any reason to want to do it.

People come along and impose their own stuff on plays, and it shows.

I don't think anyone can really make up their mind and say, Now I'm going to be a director.