Nathan Fillion Quotes

It costs nothing to say something kind. Even less to shut up altogether.

I don't expect anybody to know who I am.

My worst day is still a really good day. I complain, but I catch myself and count my blessings. I am truly blessed.

I think it's a dance that people want to see. It's a chemistry that people want to see. In the same way that people don't want to see a perfect hero with no flaws who can handle anything, people don't want to see a perfect relationship. There's nothing interesting about that. People want to see you fail.

Thank God there is a such thing as hiatus. We got the first 'Dr. Horrible' done in six days, we banged it out.

Improv as an actor makes you present in the moment. You listen, you're attentive. You're not acting so much as reacting, which is what you're doing in life all the time.

I like to say there's certain things you can't take back: One of them is 'I love you,' and one of them is bullets.

I think I've been really good at surrounding myself with really talented people. I've picked the right coattails to ride on.

Do something today you've been afraid to do. A decision based on fear is the wrong decision.

What turned me on to comedy was - well, first of all, I like being able to laugh, I like people who can make me laugh.

Whatever our bedtime was as kids, we could stay up an extra half hour if we were reading. My parents didn't care as long as I was under the spell of a Stephen King or a Douglas Adams. Now I read in bed. I read at work. I read standing in line. It's like, 'Hello, my name is Nathan and I am a reader.'

With scheduling and the way projects come up, I take the first thing that interests me and that moves me. If it's going to be fun, if I'm going to have a good time, and I'm going to enjoy the people I'm with, then that's a good enough reason to do it.

I'm the kind of guy who, I need a watch that tells me what day it is. I need to know it's Friday on my watch. I need to look at it and go, 'Friday today.' Tomorrow I will not know it's Saturday until I look at my watch. My watchband broke, I was crippled. I have no concept of time, I have no concept of dates.

I slowly came to realize that this job of being an actor, you spend most of your time looking for work. That is your job. Your job is auditioning. You spend very little of your time actually working.

I think maybe, if I could be a Canadian super hero, I'd have some kind of freezing power and some sort of maple syrup weapon. Could be a little sticky.

Karaoke is something that's near and dear and very close to my heart. I was a karaoke host when I was working my way through university. I was a full-time student and karaoke was my night job.

I'm the biggest geek of all. Adventure, fantasy, comic books - I can't get enough.

Growing up, my parents managed to show me the importance of reading without cramming it down my throat. A difficult task, I'm sure. It breaks my heart to think that there are kids out there, ready to have their imaginations lit on fire, excited and wanting to read, and facing naked shelves in their school or local libraries. Rather than complain or wait till the system stops failing our nation's children this is a matter I feel we must take into our own hands. There are children, right now, waiting-wanting to read. What shall we tell them>

I told myself a while back, 'Love what you do, but don't fall in love with what you do.' That way you won't be brokenhearted if ever it gets canceled five episodes in - which has happened to me.

I've had a long line of failed television programs, pilots that were never picked up, series that didn't go very long. I've learned that there's really nothing you can do. If it's not in my control, I try not to worry about it.

It's a thrill to be a fan amongst fans.

There's only one spot in history for the first ever of anything.

I want my job to include a little adventure, a little more of a heightened reality than what I'm actually living.

Working on Drive, a lot of fun. This is Tim Minear whom I've worked with before on Firefly of course. He called me up and said I've got a part for you that you will love and I love Tim's writing. I love his stories. I love his characters, his dialogue. He has a knack for reveals and he has a knack for moments.

It's so great in Hollywood now. You have people past 40 sitting and talking about serious stuff, writing and making movies and TV, but there's laser pistols and superheroes and alien monsters involved. It's viable and mainstream.

My mother always tells me, 'Nathan, you're very much a geek, but your strength is that you look mainstream. So no one can tell just by looking at you.' I think this is true.

I have jobs that I've preferred more than others simply because I've gotten to meet and make friends with great people. I've pulled at least one very close friend from every project I've done.

I was going to be a High School teacher. I was studying at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, up in Canada. I was also acting in a wonderfully supportive theatre community in Edmonton. There's a lot of support for theatre there. So, I was having a great time, but I didn't consider acting as a serious career initially, because even the most successful actors that I know in Edmonton are not super successful. Acting over there is just not a success-oriented career.

When people embrace character, there's latzie. It's the stuffing of a scene that's not written. It's not in the stage direction and it's not in the words. When people embrace character, it informs their living, breathing moments in a scene so well.

The secret to comedy is not playing the comedy, but actually playing the situation, playing the drama of it.

I think TV has been a little bit irresponsible in how they portray these people because homicide detectives are not brooding, tortured souls who are stained with the stink of the city and who have blood on their hands. They are real, live people that are incredibly entertaining.

I love hiking in the hills not far from my house. I'm invested in my hikes. Sometimes kids go up there and spray-paint over the signs; I've found a biodegradable paint cleaner, and I'll scrub the signs so they're nice and clean.

I'm not a famous celebrity of any kind. I'm a guy from Edmonton who's got a great job and I'm loving it.

I'm living in Los Angeles, I'm in films and I'm on television, and I'm working with actors and telling stories. I'm living the fantasy. My worst day is a great day.

It's a trap I've fallen into earlier in my career - trying to be liked. Don't do it. When I watch TV and I see someone trying to make me like them, acting cute or quirky or goofy, I'm not impressed. Don't act like America's watching you. Just latch onto your character. Characters are flawed. Be unlikeable. Be flawed. Be a person.

Being in the industry, I've seen many situations where someone will get the call from the network where they say 'You guys have 5 episodes to wrap it up.' Then all your long-term story arcs gotta get wrapped up in five episodes because that's how many episodes you got left. I would hate to see that happen to 'Castle'.

I love what I do. And why not be nice? I mean, I've seen people who work and they're apparently not enjoying it, and they're making sure everybody knows it.

What draws me to roles, I think, are moments - moments that define character, where so much more of the story is told in just a moment - a look, a line, a short scene, but something that speaks a volume, something that speaks to me.

I'm a plethora of stolen jokes and kitschy references.

The truth is I'm a dork. I collected comics. I still love cartoons. I'd rather be at home on a Friday night than out at some club… My sense of humor is that of a geek. My likes and dislikes are that of a geek. I've memorized every crappy sci-fi movie there is, but still haven't seen Schindler's List.

I want my job to include a little adventure, a little more of a heightened reality than what I'm actually living. And 'Castle' has that. He gets this opportunity to tail these homicide detectives, and he's driven by that. He's a little immature, but he's obviously loving life.

You can't embarrass Joss Whedon, he's got no pride! He fully admits it. 'Oh, it's me. I'm little and goofy.' You can't wound his pride. He's too self-deprecating.

I think my printing to this day looks like the printing right out of a comic book. Actually, I always wanted to be in a comic book. I watched cartoons when I was a kid, too, and both comics and cartoons lit fire in my imagination. This realm holds a lot of interest for me, a lot of passion for me. So to be comic-ized, yeah, that's cool.

Somebody once said that you can never act and be another person; you're only acting facets of yourself. I think there's a lot of truth in that.

The trick is, when you grow up, find work that feels like play.

Somebody told me long ago that in acting, it's okay to steal, just steal from the best.

Never trust a southerner. No, I'm kidding. They're wonderful. You want to believe in his niceness and his charm, but he's an evil kind of crazy man who's righteous. Fear the righteous.

Oh, boy. I'm still in touch with about 90 percent of my exes. They would describe me as being unlucky in love.

I love doing 'Castle.' We pump out 24 episodes in 10 months, and we work long hours. We do lots and lots of takes, and everyone there is a talent machine. It is a taxing endeavour to say the least, but when you get into a groove, it doesn't matter if you're tired, it doesn't matter if you're sick. You can do it.

I realized, dumb people don't know they're dumb. When people try to make me laugh and they try to be funny, that's when they lose me. I find a lot of comedy in honesty.