Top 121 Quotes & Sayings by William H. Macy

There are some older women out there who are just knockouts, real beauties, and they're not getting the roles they should.

I'm sure I have a process, but it mostly takes place in my dreams.

That red carpet has to be felt to be believed.

If I like the story and it's well written, and it's a character I want to play and they'll pay me, then I decide to do it.

I think I've been in situations where they looked at me and just see some rich white guy - they don't see me at all.

I got an agent. He said, what do you wanna do, and I said, I want an Oscar nomination. That's your job, that's what I'm paying you for. And I got it.

I'll tell you this about the Oscars - they're real.

Oh yeah, that's the Holy Grail, Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp, he's the real deal, isn't he? He doesn't get the girl, and he doesn't care.

When Fargo came out, I hired a publicist for the first time in my life. I thought, if ever I was going to make it, that was then.

I was a dog in a past life. Really. I'll be walking down the street and dogs will do a sort of double take. Like, Hey, I know him.

I do them all for the money, I really do.

I'm really proud of the writing on Door to Door, and I think that's the Emmy that meant the most - the writing.

We thought sex was free. Sex is not free. There's a price to be paid emotionally, physically, even legally. Sex isn't a casual thing. It's a huge thing.

When I was in New York, I was making a living. We had a summer house and a car that I could put in a garage. That's something for a stage actor.

The only people who do plays in LA are people who can't get jobs in TV shows.

We all want to be 20 again and have that first sense of love.

When I watch a film I get swept away. I don't really watch the camera.

I think theater is powerful. The best experiences I had in the theater are more powerful than the best experiences I had in movies.

We must admit that it is quite common that people do have affairs with their leading ladies and men.

Yeah, I made it. It sneaks up on you. You're some schmuck and you wake up one day and you go, Good God, I'm the cheese.

The bar raises as you go.

The Spirit Awards are great too, they'll say anything because they're not televised. Another great drinking night.

Nobody became an actor because he had a good childhood.

Directors work 10 times harder than anyone else. Get paid a quarter.

I'm not against watching myself, but I miss a lot of it. I've got two little kids who we don't let watch TV.

I have a tendency to say yes to a script or no to a script. Not yes based on a rewrite.

A favorite cast? Lisa Kudrow, Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and my wife.

Everyone hooks up with George Clooney. He's a genuinely cool guy. He's using his powers for good.

Ninety percent of the preparation we do as actors is just jive. It doesn't do anything.

I'm a firm believer that character is highly overrated. Character is a trick that we do with the audience's collusion.

Stephen King writes a lot of things that are really charming and quirky, and that are more ironic than horror.

It started with the Godfather, this operatic violence. I don't know.

To a certain extent. I'm a fan of rehearsal on the day [of the shoot], more than getting together a week beforehand.

You have to do whatever you can to limit the things that could make you feel insecure.

I'm a big fan of rehearsal. I'm famous for pulling the cast together, not so much to formally rehearse, but just to run the lines. My theory of acting is that it takes all your attention just to stay in the moment, and keep your attention on the other person, and get him to do what you want him to do.

I'm not much of a preparer. I think sometimes as an actor you need to go out and learn some skills, but in terms of preparation for understanding the character, it's all on the page, and if it's not on the page, you're in trouble.

The emotions will take care of themselves. You don't have to prod them along. As a matter of fact, you get in trouble when you prod them along.

It sure is boring to be around people who are in character all the time. I always find it's closer to mental illness than acting excellence.

I've always felt that, no matter where you go, people are just people.

All modesty aside, I think I'm good at reading scripts. The way I read a script is as fast as I can, all in one sitting, and I don't read many of the stage directions. I only read enough stage directions to let me know where I am, because they're always so verbose and mostly horseshit. So I only read the dialogue, which allows me to see the movie in my mind's eye in real time.

I really love hanging out on the set, and I love the life, and all of that. But I don't think I could stick with this profession if it weren't for those 15 minutes a day when I get to act. That's the part I love. For some strange reason, it's the time that I'm the least self-conscious in my whole life.

It's hard on an actor when you have to do a scene 45 times and you know damn well that three of the angles a director is shooting will never make it into the movie.

I think what all actors share is that, somewhere down in your solar plexus, there's this fear that you're not going to be able to come up with the goods, that this is the one movie where you're going to look like a fool, and they should have cast someone else. And you feel ugly, and you've got three chins, and you've gained too much weight, and you're losing your hair, and there are so many better actors who could do this. But if you've got chops, what you realize is that everybody feels that way, so just show up and do the job.

I love metaphor the way some people love junk food.

Emotions are the natural result of striving for something. Every single scene has two or more people in it, and nobody wants the same thing, so they are negotiating this one way or another. The result of that negotiation will bring out all kinds of emotional stuff in you.

One's complete sentences are attempts, as often as not, to complete an incomplete self with words.

We always want to see people strive and see the human spirit triumph against adversity. That's what it's all about because that's what we're doing. We're trying to triumph in our lives.

So many actors spend so much energy trying to remember the lines. It's so foolish. Guys are the worst.

Nothing else counts except what you want.

That's pretty much what every scene is about, getting people to see your point of view. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Just learn the whole script before you start shooting. That makes shooting a joy. Even if they rewrite, it's easy.

All that back-story stuff doesn't help. What you get paid for is to stand toe-to-toe with the other actor and get him to do your will.

You should know the lines, be prepared, get sleep, and have the script analyzed so you're ready to rock and roll.

It's hard to be depressed around a ukulele. You just pick it up and you're halfway home.

I love directors who talk action as opposed to emotion.

So much of the violence in the movies is b.s. violence: A guy in the middle of a large city with 14 people lying on the ground that he's just killed with his superhuman powers, and there's not a cop to be found. Not a siren to be heard. No price to be paid. That's not true, and I don't like that sort of stuff.

Every scene has two people who want two different things, so there's conflict in every scene. You've got to duke it out, and you've got to get the other person to change his or her mind and do it your way.

Shameless is a rough show, and it’s not for everyone, but it’s also beautiful.

The roughest part is showing up. Once you throw yourself into the scene, it's just great fun to let it all go and not be self-conscious, and stop questioning whether you're sufficient.

I've studied Stanislavsky, and Mamet taught Stanislavsky, and I studied with Sanford Meisner. But the part of the method that I think is the most fruitful is the method of physical actions. It all comes down to your objective: Nothing else counts except what you want. How you feel will take care of itself.