Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Bradley Whitford

I grew up in Wisconsin. It's not like growing up in New York or L.A., where you know somebody's cousin who does this. It was in the back of my mind, but I would never say that I wanted to be an actor, but as I look back, I was in every play I could possibly be in.

I heard an Israeli speaking on Palestinian human rights issues, an interesting guy, and he said 'There's no military solution to terrorism. If there were, Israel would be the safest place in the world. But there's no military solution.'

You need to be real enough to be believable, but you don't necessarily have to be real enough to be real. There is a distinction.

I was at the vice president's Christmas party. I thought that his speech was spectacular, and I knew that it was a very emotional and difficult thing for him to do, but I admonished him for not waiting just one more stinking day.

You don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything.

Cal Ripken is steady, he focuses on his job, and he's a good guy.

I want to see Bob Dylan do sketch comedy. I'm a huge Bob Dylan fan.

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are.

An experience like 'The West Wing' is what I would imagine - even though I've never done it - that surfing feels like. It's, like, 'Whoa! I can just stand up here and ride this without all the anxiety!'

Love means never having to say you're a zero.

I can't believe George Bush might be president.

I identify with this guy's frustration and inability to control his fury at moments. I even identify with the way that this guy covers up a lot with humour. So yeah, it's interesting.

We're telling a story. And the demands of that are different from the demands of a documentary. The audience must believe in order to keep faith in the story.

With the success of a show, you get an opportunity to call attention to things that you believe in.

You don't want your credibility banana to turn brown, but you do want to speak out about what you believe in.

Whatever you do, make sure you want to write more than you want to be a writer. Make sure you want to act more than you want to be an actor. That is what will sustain you.

John Wells let me write a couple of West Wings, which was an incredible gift. I loved it once I got past the brain injury part of it, and so I'm working on a couple of things that are far from fruition, but what I want to pursue.

Anybody who can dial a telephone can master tennis scoring in about 15 minutes.

The issue for my character, and the issue of the show is, how dirty do your feet have to get without suffocating yourself in the mud in order to get an inch of what you really want done?

I have to think that I think it's always been a horse race between this administration's temporary political acumen and their completely, utterly, totally bankrupt policies. And they're coming home to roost. It was always a question of time. These guys aren't conservative. These guys are radicals.

Misogyny is at the reptilian brain stem of a lot of right-wing politics.

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen... yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.

One of the most surreal moments in this election was after the third debate, when I heard a talking head say, Al Gore won on substance, on the issues. But you have to give the victory to Bush because he seems presidential.

Richard Schiff is a really good baseball player. It's surprising because he looks exhausted.

This election ain't no stinkin' TV show.

Being an actor, you always feel like you're swimming upstream. People are going, 'No, they don't like you. They don't like the way you look. They don't like how old you are.'

Having an affair with an intern is just an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Juilliard was four years, and I called it 'med school with guaranteed unemployment at the end.' And it ends: you're getting ready to go out and be an actor, and... nothing.

Only two things ever stop the government from doing anything: money and politics

In the right situation, acting on television can be extraordinarily satisfying creatively. But that's incredibly rare. Otherwise, it can be like working in a really remunerative coal mine. That's the down side.

Being an actor, you always feel like you're swimming upstream. People are going, "No, they don't like you. They don't like the way you look. They don't like how old you are."

I used to defend the West Wing show from the charge of sentimentality or wish-fulfilment, because I think if you do go into the Barack Obama White House you will find six or seven people around him who are true believers. We make these people climb this filthy rope and then we stand at the bottom and say, "Hey, your hands are dirty!" To show heroic, progressive, democratic politics at work was more than I ever expected.

I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who is the executive producer and writer. He had been talking about doing a political show for a long time and I had been interested in it for a long time. The moment I became available, he called me last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and then I just had to audition for the powers that be, and I got it.

John Wells let me write a couple of West Wings, which was an incredible gift. I loved it once I got past the brain injury part of it, and so I'm working on a couple of things that are far from fruition, but what I want to pursue

People always say, "Could it have been a show about a conservative Republican administration?" No! Nobody wants to watch that! Watching Republicans flirt makes people queasy!

My joke about Aaron Sorkin is that The West Wing was a great show about democracy, run by Kim Jong-Il!

At the end of your days, you will be judged by your gallop, not by your stumble.

Infuse your life with action.

Early on in my career I got a part in Revenge Of The Nerds II: Nerds In Paradise. If I hadn't done that I wouldn't have met Tim Busfield and if I hadn't met Tim Busfield, I wouldn't have met Aaron Sorkin. So Nerds II took me straight to the White House!

Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope.

As an actor you always feel like you're swimming upstream.

I did not always agree, personally, on the positions that Bartlet, character from the West Wing, took and I argued against them on many occasions. But Aaron Sorkin said, "Martin, that's you, that's not Barlet. It's a very political decision he has to make." I found from the very beginning that when I infused my own personal feelings about an issue it went against the grain of the character.

Take action. Every story you've ever connected with, every leader you've ever admired, every puny little thing that you've ever accomplished is the result of taking action. You have a choice. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life.

We all go through life bristling at our external limitations, but the most difficult chains to break are inside us.

Help us show children around the world that we can make a difference together.

You don't want to become one of those Hollywood idiots who is just blathering about anything

Take action. You can either be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life. Action is the antidote to apathy and cynicism and despair. You will inevitably make mistakes but at the end of your days, you will be remembered for your gallop, not for your stumble.

I grew up in a family where the internalized understanding was that the kids were going to grow up into a better world. I worry, because I don't think my kids are going to have that. The world is very scary. The world would be scary without the choices the current administration made, but they just exacerbated it. And it ticks me off. I want my kids to have a good life.

The invisible carnage of the unf-ed wives and the children not being read to is just wafting out.

When you act, you're always playing a version of yourself. You can't bring more to the role than what you are

Aaron is a very passionate, maniacal writer so the scripts really come from him, but he is very open to... y'know, we'll plan ideas and we'll certainly tussle about stuff when the script comes out. So, to a certain extent, he's very interested. If there's some problem or something that doesn't ring true, he wants to know why and he wants to correct it or fight for it.