Top 94 Quotes & Sayings by Paul Giamatti

The supporting thing can be harder to pop in and out of. The hardest thing is the people who have to come in and play, say, the bartender for a day - that's a lot harder than playing the lead role. You have to pop in and get it right. It's a lot of pressure to just pop in there and fit in and find your footing really fast.

I'm not a big wine guy. And bars, I never go to bars anymore. It's such a drag, man.

It'd be disingenuous to say I don't like attention - I'm an actor for God's sake - and it's flattering and all, but attention was never my big goal. I just like to work and have a good time.

I like playing weird, kind of shady people.

I find that the crazy narcissists, the selfish loons are often the most fun to be around, weirdly.

I'm clearly not Brad Pitt, and I'm never going to be Brad Pitt.

It is because my dad died suddenly that I became an actor. I thought, I'm going to make money doing this thing I enjoy.

Well, you know, when people say stuff about you, it's always really flattering. But does it mean anything to me? It's not really real to me; there's no reality to it.

Most conspiracies interest me because of the people who are into them, and the lengths they'll go to expose it or the evidence they think they have. All that stuff. There's just something so beautiful to me about people who sincerely believe we never went to the moon. It gives me so much joy.

'Capricorn One' just seemed like... wow. That was it, y'know? Nothing was ever going to be better than that movie.

I definitely had a top-notch education.

Am I really cool? You're telling me I'm cool? Well, that's good to hear.

I wanted to play Zapruder, as he is a man you really don't know much about: a faceless, anonymous figure.

I was never the class clown or put on shows at home. I never thought of acting as something I could do with my life. When I was a kid, I used to run around wrapped in toilet paper so I could be the Mummy. But that wasn't a sign that I was dreaming of being an actor. I was just an odd child.

I remember when I was at the first showing of 'John Dies at the End' at Sundance, and I was talking to some of the people in the standby crowd who were outside and didn't have tickets. They were just waiting in line to see if they could get in. It was this whole gang of die-hard sci-fi wacko people, and they were just fantastic.

I don't mind being stereotyped in some way and playing certain kinds of guys, but if I can find something to occasionally get a break from that, that would be nice. And I feel like I manage to.

There is something pleasurable for an actor to produce something and not be in it.

I was more used to acting onstage, for a long time. I don't know, maybe I was temperamentally more suited to stage stuff. And there are things about the stage that I miss in a lot of ways.

I've never not been proud of the work I was doing; I have nothing I have any shame about.

I've got to be the geekiest guy in the world in a lot of ways. I'm like a zeta male.

Academia is a rarified culture, especially an Ivy League academic background.

One of my favourite things growing up was 'Asterix', those books.

As an actor, to have achieved financial stability is amazing. But I always have this weird fear that I'm not going to get any more work; it's about not having enough money.

I learned how to fire a sniper rifle, which I'm sure will be useful at some point.

I don't consider myself a very interesting person. I have the mentality of a supporting actor.

Acting can be a really silly thing. It's like playing dress-up.

I was the youngest child and got a lot more freedom than my brother and sister. I used to wander, doing my own thing under the radar, but I didn't get in bad, bad trouble.

I've very critical of myself, and film has been an adjustment for me.

I definitely have a tendency to only see the blemishes of things, and see lots of things about my acting that I don't like.

Do you know Don Coscarelli? 'Bubba Ho-Tep?' That's one of my favorite movies in the world. And I love the 'Phantasm' movies.

I always would be happy to make a character even more unlikable, but you know, there's a limit and if you go there, you get into a very different kind of movie, man.

I get tired of myself pretty fast.

If I play a more aggressive, stronger guy, I often go through my day feeling a bit better than when I play somebody who's not.

I never thought I would have any particular career in movies at all.

I like to work - I probably work too much.

I don't think film actors need training, really, but I needed any help I could get.

I suppose there must be some way in which I'm compelled to show some side of myself - or of people - that's paranoid and fraught and beleaguered and downtrodden, just as Tom Cruise wants to show that he's terrifyingly upbeat and terrifyingly heroic all the time.

I have the mentality of a supporting actor.

I was a big 'Planet of The Apes' fan, so I was really excited about being in it. I had a really good time. I liked wearing all that stuff, and I liked playing the part.

I still want to be the guy who can get on the subway and check out the freak on the subway.

I'm pretty easy to get along with on set, but I'm probably hard on myself.

I did a movie called 'American Splendor', based on the comic book writer Harvey Pekar.

The white male is one of the easiest things to be. There's always a job; there's always something for you to do.

With 'Duplicity', I was a little bit like, 'This isn't that hard of a movie.' This isn't like some huge brain trust of a movie. You gotta be a little bit awake to follow the plot, but it's really just a kind of light entertainment. It's like those Cary Grant movies, which are not meant to be anything other than diverting. In a nice way.

Religion features more now in my life than it did when I was a kid - my dad rejected the Catholic church as a young man. I had no religious upbringing, but certainly, Dad was a kind of secular humanist. I don't know if he was an atheist or agnostic. I regret I didn't talk to him about it.

I consider myself an atheist. My wife is Jewish. And I'm fine with my son being raised as a Jew. He's learning Hebrew and is really into it. I will talk to my own son about my atheism when the time is right. But there's a great tradition of Jewish atheism, there are no better atheists in the world than the Jews.

Somehow whatever I play ends up being sleazy.

Now, actors get so familiarized with Eastern Europe. I never imagined I'd get as familiar with Budapest and Prague and places like that in my life.

I don't feel like I've ever done anything - even 'Big Momma's House' - that I didn't really have some desire to do.

Lead roles are fun, but I'm especially happy other, more colorful supporting stuff has come along.

I would probably choose supporting roles if I had to make a choice. It's actually a really hard thing to say. It's all on a role-by-role basis, ultimately. I shouldn't be so quick to say that. I feel like you're given greater license to be colorful and eccentric in supporting roles, and that's interesting to me.

I don't think film actors need training, really.

I mean, I'm not going to play the hero of something.

I don't mind talking about acting. I don't have anything interesting to say about it, but it's interesting talking about it.

It's funny: most people who recognize me on the subway and stuff - it's much more they think of me as a funny guy. I get much more of people telling me how much I make them laugh, actually. Which is nice.

You are absolutely free to describe me as a turtle or something.

This whole business feels kind of intense, like a bad fit. Round peg, square hole. But whatever, I'll take it.

I played old men back in drama school. It's just now that I'm drawing level with the age of the characters I play, but I'm fine with that, and I've certainly never envied people who became hugely famous when they were young.

Sometimes, I think I may be more recognizable because I'm character-looking.

I don't really have any opinion about my performance in 'Big Momma's House.'