Top 128 Quotes & Sayings by Bryan Cranston

There's this notion that in order to draw attention and to be considered for roles I want to be considered for, you need a certain amount of notoriety.

It used to be that people would watch TV shows because they knew the characters would stay the same. Whether it's Archie Bunker or it's Thomas Magnum you watch it because it's like, 'I'm comfortable, this is the same guy.'

When actors first come up, you're auditioning for everything - you're trying to sniff it out like a pig with a truffle and you would do anything!

Money has never been my primary goal.

What's interesting is a man with no facial hair is less intimidating than a man with facial hair, and a man who is bald is more intimidating than a man with hair.

It's mind-altering when you slip into someone else's shoes. That's psychedelic, man.

My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don't think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn't be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world.

This self-congratulatory notion Americans have that their country is Number One is borne of ignorance and bad manners.

Hollywood has known this for quite a while: Cable is the place to go because they truly have a supportive network and they want to do things that cannot be seen on broadcast. That stimulates the writer-producer. Cable is king.

If you have a level of expectation in your life that you have to be a quote-unquote star, whatever that means, you might be setting yourself up for failure.

Mixing humor and politics is something that works.

Bad for the sake of bad is boring to me and not believable.

You need to tell the truth to the audience, or they will throw a brick through the TV. They'll turn you off.

Every experience feeds an actor, and I've learned that depression is all around us.

I don't have spare time.

I love acting because it's empowering. It empowers me.

Danger is cool.

I think if you believe in past lives, I must have been an extremely deprived being. I must have been mistreated, beaten, and forced into indentured servitude because this life has just been phenomenal.

I've done more crap than I care to remember. I really have. 'Airwolf.' 'Murder, She Wrote.' 'Amazon Women on the Moon.' But you learn from all these bad shows. What you don't want to do and what you don't want to be involved with.

Love is not as important as good health. You cannot be in love if you're not healthy. You can't appreciate it.

At my age, I don't think anyone is untouched by cancer.

Love between two adults is always conditional. You can fall out of love because you are able to fall in love.

We've been trained since kindergarten: Be nice, be kind, share, put on a smile. So we're conditioned to squash our natural selfish instincts, and that's the right thing for society.

In order to be an actor you really have to be one of those types of people who are risk-takers and have what is considered an actor's arrogance, which is not to say an arrogance in your personal life. But you have to be the type of person who wants the ball with seconds left in the game.

I think naturally, if you're an actor, there's a high level of assertiveness that you need to have to survive this business. There's boldness in being assertive, and there's strength and confidence.

People would love to be rich, but they're looking for the easy way. Who wouldn't want to win the lottery? Just to score.

The imagination is part of the arsenal that actors draw from.

It's funny, I do try to maintain health. I started doing Bikram yoga which is that hothouse yoga, the 105 degrees yoga for 90 minutes. It's great, you purge out all the sweat and you're drinking water.

I have some anger issues.

My passion is becoming involved in good work, whether that means as an actor or writer or director or producer or all - that is not as important to me.

I don't really relax. When I sleep, I relax.

You don't want to be a Kardashian.

Given the right set of circumstances any one of us could become dangerous - so why not show that in our programmes?

Being a day player, period, is one of the hardest things you can do as an actor.

I look like everyone.

If something is well-written, it has a chance to be good and if it's not well-written, it will not be good. It could even become popular, but it won't be good.

I admit, I do a lot of projects, but it's because I'm in a position now where I'm reading a lot more scripts and plays and things, and I'm really listening to offers and trying to think what I want to do at any given time.

I enjoy doing comedy for the fact that you go to work and you laugh. That's a good combination.

I appreciate my role as an actor much more after I direct because it's just easier.

If you have a screaming angry director, everyone else will be panicked as well.

There are far more talented people doing voice work than I.

As a director you come in and tell the actors how good they are.

Part of an actor's job is to draw up a back story.

Actors are inherently self-centered.

With craziness, you can't predict it. There's very little defense you can have on craziness.

If you're a person who complains about everything all the time, then you're just the boy who cried 'wolf.' But if you do it on occasion and about the right reasons, then people listen.

I'm pretty handy! I do a lot of things around the house, and I actually enjoy it.

The TV business is like the produce section of the market. Today everything is fresh and glistening and firm. And tomorrow, when they find a bruise on you, they toss you out.

What's great about comedy, obviously, is that you set up a situation that people assume one thing and then you break the assumption. That's basically the backbone to comedy. You set up a situation, let people make an assumption, and then you break the assumption.

Luck is a component that a lot of people in the arts sometimes fail to recognise: that you can have talent, perseverance, patience, but without luck you will not have a successful career.

I can tell you for sure: people who are at their peak right now will not sustain that. You can't. It's against the law of nature.

My goal has always been to be a working actor.

The only thing that we as actors really can control is to be able to say 'yes' or 'no' to the material.

I'm telling you, until I shaved my head, I never realized how much heat is lost through the top of the head. I walk out in winter and it feels like I have an ice pack on my head. Unbelievable.

I have talked to stunt drivers all my life, 32 years of talking to stunt drivers. There's a craziness to them.

I learned long ago to focus on things you can control and don't even pay attention to things you don't.

I want to be able to experience everything. I want to experience being a husband, experience being a father, experience, maybe, hopefully, someday being a grandfather, and all those things. I want that experience. When I die, I want to be exhausted.

What's great about well-written material is, if you can shock with justifiable actions, that's the best.

I have a lovely family who supports me and it's great.

I wish Americans thought more like Europeans when it comes to money and work. They take time off, they do what they love. We think work is the most valued commodity. Really the most valued commodity is time.