Top 44 Liev Schreiber Quotes

I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that’s a lot of what acting is. I was a little bit different.

You can think about your career or you can think about your job. I like to think about my job.

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.

Entitlement is lethal.

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

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

Home is New York.

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

I did some research into what was going on in terms of the sexual revolution that was happening in the ’60s in the gay community and particularly in the drag world. Before the ’60s, guys doing drag would dress like their mothers or iconic Hollywood actresses.

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.

Every girl I’ve gone out with has said something to me first.

You’d think true masculinity was just calm and collected happiness. So alpha male that it needs not or worries not. But typically masculine characters are always fighting, and most violence comes from some agitated level of fear and anxiety.

I remember finding ‘Harold and Maude’ strangely erotic. I’ve always had an octogenarian fetish.

Well, 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.

I had great teachers, great ensembles, and great companies to work with who supported my career.

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.

We have to remember to respect the faith of people and maybe not the organizations or the groups that manifest around it.

I think conflicted characters are always more interesting.

I have the kind of face that people want to punch.

There’s nothing more exciting than that conversation you have with a live audience. It’s the best feeling in the world.

I get panic attacks in big crowds.

The worst bar fights I ever saw were in London. I saw a guy break a pint glass in another guy’s face in a club in the Eighties. It was a gay club, too.

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

I love my mother and father. The older I get, the more I value everything that they gave me.

I’m actually a very bad surfer, which is good because everybody likes a bad surfer. Nobody likes a good surfer.

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.

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

Part of what I enjoy about the theatre and acting is that sense of history.

I’ve never been a heavy practitioner of the method or, at least, with any specific intent; I’m kind of an impulse-based person. Like, I’m sort of waiting for something to happen that I’m not expecting, and I kind of want to jump on that train of emotion, whatever it is, both from myself or from the other actor.

I think, the first time I played Iago at the Public Theater, I realized I had a – much to my chagrin – I realized I had an instinct for these conflicted characters, for these torn characters, for these characters who could be described as evil. I wouldn’t describe them that way.

I really never thought I was that good at film. And honestly still don’t. My strength is language. My background is monologues and a certain kind of Brechtian spin on theater.

That’s really how I got started was doing Shakespeare. When I got out of school, I was lucky enough to meet George Wolfe, who ran The Public Theater.

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

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.

Everyone says villains are thankless parts, but those are really the best roles.

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

During ‘Manchurian Candidate‘ – that role originated with Laurence Harvey, and I studied everything he did. I would never be able to reproduce that performance, but I got a lot of ideas from watching it.

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

Some actors need to be rattled and some need to be focused.

I find that the most interestingly written parts happen to be the bad guys.

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 struggle with the idea of comparing people’s work and art. The notion of giving awards or putting a competitive spin on something that is a relative art form is sort of odd to me.

There’s the private persona and the public persona and the two shall never meet.

And I think for me there’s 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.