Top 151 Quotes & Sayings by Michael Keaton
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Michael Keaton.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
I was raising a child full time, sharing the responsibility with his mom. He lived with me half the time, so I chose not to go away and make certain movies.
Historically, I'm not a great patient when it comes to slowing down.
I don't know how to not be outside since I was a little kid.
I took my play very seriously, and I got way, way lost in my play world.
Day to day and doing the work and getting to that honest point - that, for me, is always about - and always will be as long as I do this - refining and refining and refining and refining the truth... constantly being as truthful and honest and raw and real as you can be.
To this day, I have the most fond memories of some of my old toys.
I get kinda self-conscious. I don't want to know about my eyebrows. I'm born with them.
People always make these generalized statements about Hollywood, and there's all kinds of people in Hollywood.
Over the years, I think, people - actors, writers, whatever - lose their frame of reference. Their frame of reference is based on somebody else who did this or did that. Performances. So it just becomes a reflection of what already works. Like a warm-up. And that's an invitation to be inauthentic.
Westerns were always my favorite things when I was little. And it always bothered me when cowboys were too clean in movies, or when they wore their guns like they had an outfit on. It always worked better when a guy looked sweaty and smelly; I hadda believe, I hadda believe that.
I was an altar boy, which I loved and am very proud of. It was strict, but also really nice.
I'm just shocked and thankful that I've gotten away with everything - experimenting here, trying at this, failing at that, being good in some things, not so good in others. It's kind of amazing that people are still sticking by me. When they come up to me in the street, I just want to write them all cheques.
When I was in improv workshops or doing stand-up or writing comedy with others, or just doing comedy, I just laughed. Funny was funny; I loved to laugh. I always liked people I found generally funny.
There is the theory... that you live in two places: You either live in fear, or you live in love.
I read that John Hughes script for 'Mr. Mom,' and I thought, 'This guy is a funny writer.' I went: 'You ought to stick around and direct this thing.' But he didn't; he left, and look what he became. A really legendary comedy director.
I can't sleep the first night in a hotel room.
Have I ever been to a party with a ton of famous people in it? Yes, several times, so I guess that's a Hollywood lifestyle.
If I'm going to meditate, there is a little church up in Montecito, California. It's an old Spanish mission, actually. I find it comforting in there.
My brothers were tremendous shack builders. My shacks were horrible. My brothers once built a two-story shack from the ground up that was awesome!
I find there are a few places where I like to meditate more than in other places. There's a little Catholic church that I go to, and there's another temple I go to - there are certain places where I just feel more comfortable.
There are times when I consciously give the character something physical - a walk, the way he sits, how he talks, or his lack of physicality, which is like a physicality.
My limited theater experience was when I was a kid starting out: two or three plays. I was good in one and mediocre in the other. My problem is that I have other interests.
I always thought what made 'Beetlejuice' look so great was because it looked like some genius kid made it in his basement.
In the household in which I was raised, the themes were pretty simple. 'Work hard. Don't quit. Be appreciative, be thankful, be grateful, be respectful. Also, never whine, never complain. And always, for crying out loud, keep a sense of humor.'
If you're a dope like me, you get every sports channel you can get. I'm watching, you know, Netherlands soccer.
Filmmaking is the ultimate team sport.
Sometimes I do movies that aren't any good, or sometimes I might not be any good in them, or sometimes they don't do very well.
I worked at a PBS station called WQED in Pittsburgh.
I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but I very often like the way Europeans make movies. I think sometimes that don't they care about having to clean certain things.
There are very few jobs where you're held up to public scrutiny.
I really believed that Batman had the potential to be one of the coolest guys in cinema.
In high school, I was too shy to perform. It's one thing to get laughs from your family, to be funny at parties and in class. It's another thing to get up on the stage.
There are certainly producers I hang with and directors I hang with and actors I hang with.
I'll always stand by the first 'Batman'. Even for its imperfections, people will never know how hard that movie was to do. A lot of that still holds up.
High energy creates more energy, more energy, more energy. It kicks off synapses, I guess. It opens up your brain and you think of one thing after another thing, after another. You can really open yourself up comedically, which is fun.
I was so gullible as a kid.
I saw some Pixar movies like 'The Incredibles' and thought, 'This is extraordinary. These are some of the best movies I've seen.'
I don't know - sometimes I catch myself being dark, and it's annoying. I think, 'Get over it.' I bore myself. But sometimes, like everybody, I'm sure I am obsessive.
Weirdly, for someone who wanted to be funny, I didn't like a lot of attention.
Sometimes I don't feel like an actor. Sometimes I speak about it like it was another job, and then I go, 'Wait a minute - I am one!'
I've got a statue of St. Francis in my front yard, and I'm not even a practicing Catholic.
Will Ferrell makes me laugh a lot when he gets out there and gets crazy.
I always knew the way in was Bruce Wayne. It wasn't Batman. It was never Batman. That was the key.
There comes a point in your life when you realize how quickly time goes by, and how quickly it has gone. Then it really speeds up exponentially. With that, I think you start to put a lot of things into context; you start to see how huge the world is, and really, the universe.
Anesthesia is quite remarkable. It's lost time. And you wake up kind of refreshed.
Unpredictability means what it means. I don't know how you define it. It is what it is.
From an art perspective, I don't know how you get better than 'Beetlejuice.' In terms of originality and a look, it's 100% unique.
The vast majority of Pittsburghers don't come from any kind of serious dough.
David Letterman used to say, 'I wasn't the class clown, but I wrote for him,' and that's exactly it. You want to be known to be funny without having it pointed out.
I guess I'm probably a Method actor; I don't know... I just think of it as staying in the zone.
To say directing was a long-stewing ambition doesn't cover it. If you cut me open, you'd see it.
The first feature film I did, when I did 'Night Shift,' I improvised quite a bit because I would improvise at the audition, so sometimes I would return to the original lines, and then when I was on set, I would improvise even more.
In our family, my brothers and I shared toys. In other words, just because it was mine didn't mean my brothers and I didn't play with it.
Unless you're flat out dead, you have to think of some other questions like: what's on the other side? It brings up issues of God, or no God. How does he play into this? Or he, or she, or it? How does it all play into this?
I come from a background where you don't really talk about yourself much.
I've changed my diet a few times. Now I'm trying to eat more protein. I eat little meals throughout the day. I love food, so I still give myself great meals. Also, when I'm busy, it's easy to lose weight.
I played a lot of sports when I was a kid so I get in that ballgame mindset of being really, really respectful, but at same time saying to yourself, 'Don't back down a single inch, hang with these guys if you can.' If they throw it high and tight you have to stand in there, you can't take yourself out of that moment.
Show business is, essentially, a fear-based industry.
I used to work on a survey crew, because my dad was an engineer, but he was also a surveyor.
There're only a few photographers I've ever felt really comfortable with.
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