John Lithgow Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
When in life do you get a black and white printout that says this is what you should do? It just doesn't happen.
-
Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life.
-
I've been through plenty in my life where I've really had to focus on the day ahead... because, as I know, the future is, you know, whatever the future is... Once you've stared mortality that hard in the face, you really seize the day.
-
The Constitution remains brilliant in its overall design and sound with respect to the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers. But there are numerous archaic provisions that inhibit constructive change and adaptation. These constitutional bits affect the daily life of the republic and every citizen in it.
-
Have an earnestness for death and you will have life.
-
I suppose I flee to life. I'm most interested when conversations become difficult.
-
Somebody said to me this morning, 'To what do you attribute your longevity?' I don't know. I mean, I couldn't have planned my life out better. By all accounts I should be dead! The abuse I put my body through: the drugs, the alcohol, the lifestyle I've lived the last 30 years!
-
Even though many couples are choosing to marry later in life, our laws haven't been updated to address dating partner abuse.
-
Be who you are. It's easy to feel like you have to blend in, but it takes courage to live your life with conviction and embrace the person that you are.
-
Books that change you, even later in life, give you a kind of electrical shock as the world takes a different shape.
-
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves.
-
I've had an amazing life, but I think I was born with a little bit of sadness in me. I've always been attracted to those things, whether it's sad movies, sad music... when you're sad, you feel everything in a greater way than you do when you're happy.
-
I wanted to be an actor when I saw the movie 'Die Hard.' I saw Bruce Willis shooting guns and blowing stuff up, and I thought, 'I wanna do that.' It really had nothing to do with acting; I just wanted a job that allowed me to do fun, bigger-than-life stuff.
-
I never got down with conveying a larger-than-life vibe.
-
Life is funny. If you don't laugh, you're in trouble.
-
The destructive character lives from the feeling, not that life is worth living, but that suicide is not worth the trouble.
-
Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment - a means to an end.
-
Life is not an exact science, it is an art.
-
I think, like a lot of actors and people in the arts who are struggling to get where they want to be, you spend a lot of time sitting around grumbling about how you're not doing the kind of work you really want to do. But there's a lot of complacency in that, too.
-
The thought of becoming a painter never as much as occurred to me. I would have laughed out loud if someone had suggested that I choose painting as a career. To be a painter is not a business, no more than to be an artist, lover, racer, dreamer, or prizefighter. It is a gift of Nature, a gift..
-
Taste is the common sense of genius.
-
You look at the steamboat, the railroad, the car, the airplane - not all of these were invented in the Anglo-American world, but they were popularized and extended by it. They were made possible by the financial architecture, the capital intensive operations invented and developed by the Anglo-Americans.
-
Personally, I'm a real wimp with scary movies. I get so scared.
-
I don't deal with the nuts and bolts of life.
