Top 76 Quotes & Sayings by Bob Odenkirk

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Bob Odenkirk.

Last updated on September 17, 2024.

Robert John Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker; best known for his role as Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and its spin-off Better Call Saul (2015–present), for which he has received five nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He is also known for the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998), which he co-created and starred in with fellow comic and friend David Cross.

American - Actor | Born: October 22, 1962

Source: Wikipedia

You make you work for yourself. It's the feeling of, 'If nobody ever saw it, that'd be fine, too.'

Bob Odenkirk

I pretty much live about 10 minutes from my office. I have two kids, and I have about 8 projects that I'm working on, so I basically just get up and go to work, and go home every night and play with my kids, so I don't really know.

Bob Odenkirk

I'm hypersensitive to negativity and duplicity, and I want to push it away by writing comedy. Maybe that hypersensitivity comes across and allows me to play dastardly, multi-layered people.

Bob Odenkirk

I can't really say how big the cult is. But I'm proud of it. I'm proud that it has a life.

Bob Odenkirk

To me, great writing - and when you can really make something wonderful out of it as an actor - is when your character has a sense of self-awareness. It doesn't necessarily have to arc. It doesn't have to grow.

Bob Odenkirk

My godfather was a Chicago policeman, and I've always looked at law enforcement as a challenging and interesting job. There are so many decisions that law enforcement officers have to make, and the incident or situation changes so much from moment to moment and day to day. I have a lot of respect for officers and what they go through.

Bob Odenkirk

All people are sad clowns. That's the key to comedy - and it's a buffer against reality.

Bob Odenkirk

Vince Gilligan is a wizard - and a fantastically hard-working wizard.

Bob Odenkirk

I've spent most of my career in ensembles, and I'm good with that.

Bob Odenkirk

I think that cable TV is a great venue to do something interesting.

Bob Odenkirk

I have a lot of opinions. I express them in 'Mr. Show' very clearly, I think. I feel like both David Cross and I felt like that show reflected each of us pretty wholly.

Bob Odenkirk

I love making wisecracks.

Bob Odenkirk

I'm about to go to Sundance for my 3rd year, and Sundance has never felt like a real independent festival at all. On the other hand, it might to start feel that way.

Bob Odenkirk

I didn't do so well at 'Saturday Night Live.' It was a very hard experience for me, for a lot of reasons that have to do with the kind of person I am and the personal issues I had at the time. I was very alone in New York, and the show has a lot of stress related to it.

Bob Odenkirk

I always wrote risque comedy and crude comedy.

Bob Odenkirk

I love writing comedy and being a part of it, but as a visual, physical presence in a story, I probably am more impactful in drama. It's not really a tribute to my dexterity and wide-ranging talent so much as it is a person finally getting to where they should've been from the start.

Bob Odenkirk

The '50s sucked for a lot of people on Earth.

Bob Odenkirk

When I go to M Bar there's all kinds of agents there, looking for people who doing good stuff.

Bob Odenkirk

David and I got cut out the editing process on that. We were able to affect it more than not. We sent in our notes, we were able to see cuts. We weren't allowed to see dailies and we weren't allowed to sit in the editing room and just work.

Bob Odenkirk

I enjoy crude behaviour and language. I revel in it.

Bob Odenkirk

I probably do better when I'm in charge. But it's good to be able to be a part of something and be a supporter and help make a project work.

Bob Odenkirk

I did often wonder how relatable of a story it was when we started 'Better Call Saul.' It's such a unique character with a unique journey. But the universal drive of trying to earn respect from the people you love and not being able to do that is a common struggle for a lot of people.

Bob Odenkirk

In America, we can reinvent ourselves - we're encouraged to.

Bob Odenkirk

It's nice that the independent scene is taken seriously, and has been.

Bob Odenkirk

I actually think there's a potential, a crazy potential, that network TV could become something valuable and worthwhile, just because of fear on the part of the networks.

Bob Odenkirk

The alternative scene, for a couple years now, has been taken seriously and that's a cool thing. I don't think it's exploded or anything, but I think it's pretty cool that it still exists, it's still affecting people.

Bob Odenkirk

'Monty Python' became my religion when I was 10. It led me out of the depths of darkness. I loved 'The Goodies,' too, and 'The Two Ronnies.' I watched those shows on the public television station in Chicago.

Bob Odenkirk

There's timing in drama. You have to have a sense of rhythm. But the real thing that lends yourself to drama as opposed to comedy is a sense from the audience of whether there's more to it than you can see.

Bob Odenkirk

It is so weird to be on this side of that, because when you're starting out, and it seems like you're starting out for so long, you look up to the people who have made their mark. And you sort of want to be that.

Bob Odenkirk

I think independent movies are actually very challenging right now, because it was this huge scene and it was great for a few years. Then, it was totally co-opted by the studios. Now, it's become very corporate, the independent scene.

Bob Odenkirk

All those Bob Hope specials made me cringe when I was a kid.

Bob Odenkirk

I went to New York in '87 to write for 'Saturday Night Live.'

Bob Odenkirk

My experience - and it might be just the kind of comedy that I do, which is usually sketch comedy - is that there's a lot more texture and subplot in drama than in comedy.

Bob Odenkirk

Drama is more focused, and it reveals itself to you, whereas comedy is just right there when you first read it.

Bob Odenkirk

Humans are ridiculous. We're all pathetic strivers who will fall short. If you can accept that, it's optimistic because you can shoot for the moon and know you're never going to get there, and that's OK.

Bob Odenkirk

I remember making 'Mr. Show,' thinking, 'Man this stuff is really funny to me.' I don't know if anyone else will love it, but I know I'm going to still watch it in 15 years if I'm still alive and laugh really hard. Even though we had very high standards, we were trying to excite and please ourselves.

Bob Odenkirk

You say you're going to be the pope, become the pope.

Bob Odenkirk

The world needs less destruction.

Bob Odenkirk

In the end, the thing that really stays with you is not that you were clever enough to connect a sketch to another sketch, but what really sticks with you is when you just have an incredible moment happen, or execute a really funny idea.

Bob Odenkirk

You get to use everything you learned in movie business. You talk to actors, if you do it right - and I haven't always done it right - you should be shaping the material all the time. And the other thing is, you get all the blame when you direct and it doesn't work. You get slammed. So that's another reason to know what you're making, why you're making it, and make it the way you want.

Bob Odenkirk

My daughter got me a 'World's Best Dad' mug. So we know she's sarcastic.

Bob Odenkirk

Acting in particular is a fun job when you have a good script. I don't know about acting when you don't have a great script. I'm gonna say that's not a great job, it's kind of a dumb job. But when you have a good part in a good script, it's the best job, in a way.

Bob Odenkirk

The worst thing is to read bad reviews and go, "Yeah, I agree."

Bob Odenkirk

I honestly would tell anyone young to start looking at stories and learning story, because I think that’s the next step after people go, ‘OK, I’ve had enough of that improvisation, I’ve had enough of those short comedy bits. Tell me a story, tell me a more complex story, something that lasts and maybe has a little more meaning to it.’ Don’t ever look at what’s happening now; look at what’s coming next.

Bob Odenkirk

I think that acting is no fun unless it's hard. I'm not titillated by acting or being an actor unless I have to work hard.

Bob Odenkirk

If you're committed enough, you can make any story work. I once told a woman I was Kevin Costner, and it worked because I believed it.

Bob Odenkirk

Even if people end up doing awful things, you can empathize with their motives when you know them. When you get to know the person, you can understand why they make those choices, even if they're bad. And oftentimes people do have good drives that are sympathetic and can even be seen as selfless and good-hearted.

Bob Odenkirk

Don't say you're going to stop eating red meat when you like red meat.

Bob Odenkirk

Being comedic is a skill, because there is a fine line where the context is important. And being dramatic is just being honest and real in that moment.

Bob Odenkirk

Comedy is tragedy plus timing.

Bob Odenkirk

We don't feel constrained by what we did in the past.

Bob Odenkirk

If you surround me with darkness, suddenly, I am "somewhat fun."

Bob Odenkirk

Everybody needs some good sketch comedy.

Bob Odenkirk

You shouldn't eat red meat, but you shouldn't make resolutions you can't keep.

Bob Odenkirk

I learn things in a backward way. I learn all those limitations, and slowly my brain soaks them up, and if things go right, you just, in an organic way, translate your ideas into those templates. That's the way I perceive the process happening.

Bob Odenkirk

Drama is more focused and it reveals itself to you, whereas comedy is just right there, when you first read it.

Bob Odenkirk

Comedy can be destructive, and still very, very funny. But if I can do something that is fun to watch and critical of the world but not wantonly destructive, I pursue those kinds of ideas more. The world needs less destruction. And destruction is kind of “easy,” too.

Bob Odenkirk

We're all real people with moments of intense honesty and pathos and humanity. We all experience that, whether you're comedic or not.

Bob Odenkirk

My godfather was a Chicago policeman, and I've always looked at law enforcement as a challenging and interesting job.

Bob Odenkirk

The laugh is what trumps everything.

Bob Odenkirk