A Quote by Philip Seymour Hoffman

Ultimately, all characters have some negative and positive energies. That's just how I see it. I didn't go out looking for negative characters; I went out looking for people who have a struggle and a fight to tackle. That's what interests me.
I didn't go out looking for negative characters; I went out looking for people who have a struggle and a fight to tackle. That's what interests me.
I'm a happy-go-lucky manic-depressive. It does get very deep and dark for me, and it gets scary at times when I feel I can't pull out of it. But I don't consider myself negative-negative. I'm positive-negative.
I just don't really get into all that sort of personal negative stuff. My job is to outline some positive plans for the country's future and perhaps Mr. Howard and the Government don't like the fact that I'm putting out some positive alternatives. What's their preference.. for me to be a negative carping opposition leader?
When people come to see my stand-up, they get a chance to see my characters interact with each other. I enjoy pushing my characters to the limit. No matter how far out there I go, I look for things that make the characters human.
I have been part of some fantastic shows and played great characters, including a double role in 'Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahi' and a negative one in 'Sanjivani' because I was bored of playing positive characters.
If I'm around a bunch of people that's sad, I gotta try to make them laugh or come up with something positive out of the emotion that's making you feel negative. I'm not a negative person. I don't hang around negative people.
Self satisfaction alone cannot determine if a desire or action is positive or negative. The demarcation between a positive and a negative desire or action is not whether it gives you a immediate feeling of satisfaction, but whether it ultimately results in positive or negative consequences.
I look at characters to see if they have some contrasts to play with; I think that's always what I'm looking for in characters: ones that have a wide range of expression.
It's something I'd find rather distracting in a historical piece, looking at characters that have obviously just gotten off their Ab Blaster. You see a piece set in the 1300s or the 1800s, and you've got characters who have perfect abs and are incredibly well-groomed, not a hair out of place, and it just doesn't make sense.
I will always encourage people to seek out the word of God, because I do believe that THAT is where truth really comes from. I believe that when things go wrong if you instead of looking at that as a negative, you choose to rejoice in all things. It's the hardest thing in the world but I think that that is what ultimately leads to happiness.
When you think positively, you attract positive people. If I'm on a mission to be successful, and I'm positive all the time, then more positive people will come around me, and we'll help each other. If you're negative, you'll find yourself surrounded by negative people.
I would absolutely love to do something with Viola Davis or Meryl Streep. I just think both of those women fall so deep into their characters that you are no longer looking at the actresses, you are looking at the characters they embraced.
I think at some level, it's just alchemy that we, as writers, can't explain when we write the characters. I don't set out to create the characters - they're not, to me, collections of quirks that I can put together. I discover the characters, instead. I usually go through a standard set of interview questions with the character in the beginning and ask the vital stuff: What's important to you? What do you love? Hate? Fear? .. and then I know where to start. But the characters just grow on their own, at a certain point. And start surprising me.
My job is to take out the negativity from a positive guy and take out the positivity from a negative guy. I don't play positive or negative roles. This is what I find fascinating about acting.
Sometimes, people say certain things about me that are negative, but that's no problem. I try to take their negative and turn it to a positive. That's why I like to surround myself with positive people.
Go looking for conflict, and you'll find it. Go looking for people to take advantage of you, and they generally will. See the world as a dog-eat-dog place, and you'll always find a bigger dog looking at you as if you're his next meal. Go looking for the best in people, and you'll be amazed at how much talent, ingenuity, empathy, and good will you'll find. Ultimately, the world treats you more or less the way you expect to be treated.
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