Liev Schreiber Quotes

I didn't think that a career in theater was very realistic so I thought the only thing I could make money doing and still be somewhat artistic was, god help me, advertising.

Its the difference between instinct and intuition.

I was a writer. I just wasn't a very good one. I was lucky enough to have a playwriting teacher who told me that I'd be a better actor than I would a playwright.

I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York.

I'm misrepresented as a scary person. I'm not. It's all about my size and my eyebrows.

My publicist told me not to talk about politics but, yes, I think we have a president who stole the election.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

I think that everything I've ever done at some point is part of someone else's legacy.

He was very supportive of me, ... He saw every single play I did in New York. Ill never forget looking out into the audience and watching my brother, who was 40 years younger than my grandfather, sleeping in his chair during some of my early plays. My grandfather Alex never fell asleep.

I'm not that interested in working with impervious people.

I don't think I've ever been a huge target for the press, and I value that to a degree, because there's a certain value for actors staying beneath the radar so they can play characters.

You watch a hockey game, and the hand-eye coordination and the speed is really miraculous; how those guys track the puck alone, just following it with their eyes.

Flaws reveal a lot about a character and who people are. The flawed elements of a character are where I find their humanity. Those are the things I tend to identify with - the weaknesses. I don't know why, but I identify with struggle more than with success.

There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet

I live with an 18-month-old Jack Russell named Chicken. He moved in about 15 months ago, and it was very hard at first because I work a lot and he doesn't.

There's something cathartic about swearing 150 times after spending ten hours in the editing room.

I was always drawn to tough girls. I liked that domineering thing.

And I think for me theres a lot of neurosis involved with where you should be or thinking about where you are all the time instead of being where you are.

I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that's a lot of what acting is.

Style, no matter how outrageous it is, is still an expression of someone's personality. And my personality is somewhere stuck in the classics.

A lot of times in Hollywood you're as good as your last job.

I've always been more interested in the audience than I have in the plays. I like that idea of all those people sitting in the dark together. It's kind of fun.

I think it’s really, really important to mix it up as an actor, to try to get as much kind of varied experience as you can, not only for your own personal growth as an actor but for the audience to keep them guessing about what you’re going to do.

I really don't think there is anybody in the business with better eyes than Elijah Wood.

You know, I have a deep, deep affinity for Dr. Suess.

Hamlet is a remarkably easy role. Physically it's hard because it tends to be about three hours long and you're talking the whole time. But it's a simple role and it adapts itself very well, because the thing about Hamlet is, we all are Hamlet.

I get very nervous around famous people and I get nervous around beautiful women.

Someone very smart once said to me, "Steal, don't borrow." So if there's anything good in anything anyone else does, it's fair game. I think that everything I've ever done at some point is part of someone else's legacy.

Don't hit people; don't let it get you too angry; remember that everything you do can and will be used against you. And take a breath and have some perspective.

If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.

You are what you know, as an actor, so you gotta try to know as much as you possibly can.

Film is such a bizarre vehicle for acting. It's such a bizarre experience. I don't think you ever really get familiar with it. If you do get familiar with it, you're probably not that good anymore.

I direct in the same way that I act, which is thinking about what the scene needs.

I want to forget what I've learned about the character, but the reality is that you can't, because you've absorbed it. It's there in that moment when you need it. The hard part is to trust it.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong. That's what I find with acting. As soon as it becomes padded, it becomes pat.

You always have to create the character from the ground up.

I'm drawn to people who share that sense of loss. All actors are trying to repair damaged relationships. I think that might be why I've been drawn to other actors.

I actually loved Winnipeg. Everyone told me I was going to hate it, but it was great.

I love having that creative discussion where, at the end of the day, you both feel better for having done it. Maybe it's a typically Jewish thing, where you sort of go at each other.

I manage to hide in my movies.

I get panic attacks in big crowds.

That's one of the benefits of working on big budget films. You work with people who have a lot of experience and you get to learn a lot.

When you're in a place like New York or D.C. you just can't beat it, and it's so hard to recreate because they are both such distinctive places.

If you fall in love with somebody you're working with, fine, but wait till your project is over.

I am very good with dialects, but the two that I can't do for some reason are the South African and Australian.

I am struggling, though. It’s f-cking hard. So little sleep. It’s 23 hours and 59 minutes of exhaustion. They do one little thing in that last minute that is just so compelling and fascinating that it makes the other 23 hours and 59 minutes worthwhile.

It's good to overexpose yourself with work. But don't expose yourself too much with the press.

I am so used to being able to express myself from being an actor. So when people don't understand me, I'm just completely lost.

The funny thing is that I write and I act a lot about being Jewish, but I don't really think about it as a regular person.

Where else do you find great directors? Acting is one of the places.