Jeffrey Tambor Quotes
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'Dad, Dad, I'm getting married.' 'Sh-sh, don't say it. Nothing, nothing. Don't do anything.' So he honestly - 'cause he was taught don't celebrate - they'll take it away from you. And his parents were taught that, and his parents and parents' parents. Because if you did celebrate, and you were visible, it could be very, very dangerous.
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The honor of being able to play Maura is transformative. I'm 70 years old. I should be in a reading room, reading Dickens or something.
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I kind of like not knowing how to do something - it's more exciting.
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I wanted to do well for me and for Maura. It is bigger than me. I have a responsibility. It's incumbent upon me to do Maura the best I can.
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There are secrets in families. That is the definition of a family.
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I was a young actor who was bald, but at that time, there was a thing on television that - there was a prototype or a stereotype of a principal who was bald and mean with glasses, or there was... the angry boss who was bald.
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My wife thought I was Vincent Schiavelli, and we married.
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When I was growing up, there was a character on TV; there was a character stereotype: it was personified by Mel on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show.'
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I would daydream about what it would be like to be an actor. I would even do talk shows where I interviewed myself.
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There was one television in the living room, and we all sat around on Sundays and watched Ed Sullivan.
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This whole thing about winning and losing is muddy waters. But I can remember, as a young actor, just walking around this city and not being able to get arrested.
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I'm really aging myself, but I grew up with 'Playhouse 90' and the plays on the air - 90 minute plays.
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Every family has that secret. Every family has that thing where you go, 'Shhh, shhh, shhh.'
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'Attaboys' help people. I am huge on attaboy. Confidence is the great ingredient to living and art, with fidelity to self. It's so important to surround yourself with people who give you confidence.
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I give a speech at some colleges and corporations called 'Performing Your Life: An Evening with Jeffrey Tambor.' I get asked a lot of questions, and people say, 'Your stories are wonderful. You should write a book.'
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I get up and cook for my kids, who really like my scrambled eggs. Or we make pancakes and the requisite bacon. The kids either play or watch cartoons, and Daddy gets to read the 'New York Times' and do his puzzle.
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I remember going to Bob Preston's dressing room because I was losing a laugh - as you do in a long run. He said, 'Give me the script. That's where you're going off the road.' That's comedy. It's never the line itself; it's in the foundation.
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I can't say enough about the guts and the talents of Amazon. They're so agile, they're so nimble; they picked us up two weeks after we premiered, and their whole attitude is, 'Go, go, go, go,' so I'm very, very impressed.
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You want to feel, 'I know that character.'
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They're my instructors, and every parent will understand that.
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We did a thing that we would call we call 'hirstories.' H - I - R - S - T - O - R - Y. I would enact a young Mort. And that always felt - it was so funny - it felt more difficult than playing Maura.
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Love New York Presbyterian. I will do anything for them.
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I thought I was gonna do Lear, but I'm gonna do Maura.
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I don't take off my nail polish when I go home because I'm too lazy, and they're fine with it. Maybe the checkout at the grocery store's not so great with it, but they're fine with it. The distrust, the phobias, those are learned, those are taught. But the natural grace is to understand and to love.