1.
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.
Liev Schreiber
2.
Its the difference between instinct and intuition.
Liev Schreiber
3.
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.
Liev Schreiber
4.
I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York.
Liev Schreiber
5.
I'm misrepresented as a scary person. I'm not. It's all about my size and my eyebrows.
Liev Schreiber
6.
My publicist told me not to talk about politics but, yes, I think we have a president who stole the election.
Liev Schreiber
7.
As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.
Liev Schreiber
8.
I think that everything I've ever done at some point is part of someone else's legacy.
Liev Schreiber
9.
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.
Liev Schreiber
10.
I'm not that interested in working with impervious people.
Liev Schreiber
11.
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.
Liev Schreiber
12.
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.
Liev Schreiber
13.
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.
Liev Schreiber
14.
There's the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet
Liev Schreiber
15.
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.
Liev Schreiber
16.
There's something cathartic about swearing 150 times after spending ten hours in the editing room.
Liev Schreiber
17.
I was always drawn to tough girls. I liked that domineering thing.
Liev Schreiber
18.
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.
Liev Schreiber
19.
I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that's a lot of what acting is.
Liev Schreiber
20.
Style, no matter how outrageous it is, is still an expression of someone's personality. And my personality is somewhere stuck in the classics.
Liev Schreiber
21.
A lot of times in Hollywood you're as good as your last job.
Liev Schreiber
22.
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.
Liev Schreiber
23.
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.
Liev Schreiber
24.
I really don't think there is anybody in the business with better eyes than Elijah Wood.
Liev Schreiber
25.
You know, I have a deep, deep affinity for Dr. Suess.
Liev Schreiber
26.
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.
Liev Schreiber
27.
I get very nervous around famous people and I get nervous around beautiful women.
Liev Schreiber
28.
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.
Liev Schreiber
29.
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.
Liev Schreiber
30.
If I'm doing my job as an actor, the audience knows everything I know about the character.
Liev Schreiber
31.
You are what you know, as an actor, so you gotta try to know as much as you possibly can.
Liev Schreiber
32.
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.
Liev Schreiber
33.
I direct in the same way that I act, which is thinking about what the scene needs.
Liev Schreiber
34.
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.
Liev Schreiber
35.
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.
Liev Schreiber
36.
You always have to create the character from the ground up.
Liev Schreiber
37.
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.
Liev Schreiber
38.
I actually loved Winnipeg. Everyone told me I was going to hate it, but it was great.
Liev Schreiber
39.
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.
Liev Schreiber
40.
I manage to hide in my movies.
Liev Schreiber
41.
I get panic attacks in big crowds.
Liev Schreiber
42.
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.
Liev Schreiber
43.
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.
Liev Schreiber
44.
If you fall in love with somebody you're working with, fine, but wait till your project is over.
Liev Schreiber
45.
I am very good with dialects, but the two that I can't do for some reason are the South African and Australian.
Liev Schreiber
46.
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.
Liev Schreiber
47.
It's good to overexpose yourself with work. But don't expose yourself too much with the press.
Liev Schreiber
48.
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.
Liev Schreiber
49.
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.
Liev Schreiber
50.
Where else do you find great directors? Acting is one of the places.
Liev Schreiber
