Top 45 Quotes & Sayings by James Van Der Beek

In a way, you kind of get caught up in whatever image of yourself you think is out there.

I've been through quite a few hurricanes. I worked in North Carolina, where there's a housing development whose name was Landfall.

I always show up to work and give it everything, and some things turn out better than others - and some things you can expect that it will come out better than others.

I remember one day during my freshman year of high school, when as usual I was obsessively listening to a cast recording: it may have been 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' And I remember sitting there, totally absorbed, saying to myself, 'I can do this.'

I'm not about to talk about what's romantic in my life - I figure if you talk about it once, then that's an open invitation for everyone to dig into your personal life even further. So, I just keep my private life to myself.

I love New York City. Everyone is busy with their own lives - and no one is interested in some Hollywood celebrity walking past in downtown Manhattan.

I love sports and I love sports movies.

You are incredibly fortunate whatever success falls on you, which is what happened with me.

The ego certainly is the biggest obstacle as an artist or performer, so any chance you get to destroy that is really healthy.

The more you make fun of yourself and don't try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you.

At a young age, acting was so inspiring and exciting, because to me it was play - make-believe, pretend.

I can intellectualize myself out of anything.

Ultimately, I'd love to be able to work in film.

You know, I'm not big on conspiracy theory. It does really kind of get my blood going when I find out there really are conspiracies that actually happened.

When you're the lead of a series, things happen around you, and you react to them.

Being the lead of the show and working a lot of hours - all good stuff, a tremendous education, incredible opportunity, it changed my life - it was a marathon, and by the end of it I was pretty beat.

You start thinking the world is a certain way and forgetting that there's another world outside of the campus boundaries that has nothing to do with what is your world at the time.

I think anybody with an insecurity, which is everyone, appreciates the fact that it's much easier to be a predator than it is to be prey.

I never wear white or black socks.

I've only dyed my hair blond once, after 'Varsity Blues.'

Don't ever put anything past kids. They will surprise you in the best ways.

I'm not about to talk about what's romantic in my life - I figure if you talk about it once - then that's an open invitation for everyone to dig into your personal life even further.

I'm pretty much your average, energy-saving-light-bulbs-recycling citizen.

I love New York City. Everyone is busy with their own lives - and no one is interested in some Hollywood celebrity walking past in downtown Manhattan. That's why it's my favorite city. You can do what you want without attracting a crowd of curious onlookers.

You can't really pretend something is rosier than it is and expect people to buy it.

I've never really had a problem with the imagination level of an audience. They're always smarter and savvier than any studio exec will give them credit for.

A lot of movies you do because they're fun, they make people forget about their day.

You buy a house and you get it checked out and you feel like you've kind of made your mark here in some way. And then an act of God just comes up the coast and has the potential to just completely wipe it clean. Weather like that is certainly humbling.

I'm kind of shocked that it's taken Hollywood so long to realize that so many great movie talents can come out of television. One of the reasons they do is that on TV you don't have the luxury of a film's big budget, and people have to compensate with creativity.

The less seriously you take yourself, the better work you're going to do.

I believe every religion captures a piece of the truth.

It's a free country and I can keep my mouth shut whenever I want.

I started out doing theater in N.Y.C.

I've always been a clown trapped in a leading man's body.

I was dyslexic, so math and formulas were not necessarily my strong suit.

That's the real joy, when somebody else comes up with something that you haven't even thought of, that's better than what you would have thought of, and you get to ride that. The joy of discovering that is what would make me want to show-run again. It's the best team sport, ever.

I'm not about to talk about what's romantic in my life - I figure if you talk about it once - then that's an open invitation for everyone to dig into your personal life even further

I have a gut reaction to stuff that I read. Either it's a filmmaker that I really want to work with, or it's a story that I really want to be a part of and help serve, or there's a character that I feel I can bring something unique to. That's really what it's about. I would go crazy, if I just relied on the same tricks and did the same thing, all the time. It was just be no fun, at all. I really do need to try something different, every time out, and do something that scares me, a little bit.

If a rumor comes out that I'm gay, I could care less. There are so many worse things that they could be saying.

It's a free country and I can keep my mouth shut whenever I want

You get a script and you love it. You find a director that you trust, and it becomes all about how do I commit to this as fully as possible? And the last thing you can afford to have in your mind is what are other people going to think of this?

Had my first son this morning... well, actually, my wife had him. I just caught him. Wo. Heart expanding way faster than my brain...

Ok, this is the most unfun threesome I have ever been a part of. Nobody's having sex and someone is yelling. I'm out of here.

Eventually, I think I may end up directing. It would have to be the project where I think that I'm the person to direct it, and I don't know that that's happened yet. I certainly haven't written it, and I don't know if I've read that script yet where I was like, "Okay, I think I'm the guy that needs to direct this."

The film business has changed and society has changed. I started acting before the internet, which is insane to say. That makes me sound so old! You evolve, and the kind of career I thought I wanted, even six or seven years ago, was completely different from the career I have now, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's been a crazy trip.