John Lithgow Quotes
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Anytime a culture is in economic stress, ugly things start happening.
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I gave up shame a long time ago.
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There is less difference than you would imagine entertaining little children and entertaining adults.
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An artist is always thinking of something else. My father was like that. He had this feeling of abstraction, and I do, too.
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I don't deal with the nuts and bolts of life.
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Up there with my awards, I have a great big statue of Groucho Marx, just to put everything in perspective.
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What fascinated me most was Churchill as a young child. He had a kind of Dickensian childhood. The neglect. And he was a terrible student. His whole life is a study in trying to overcome your feelings of inadequacy.
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I do all the cooking in the family. I cook Italian, mostly, pastas and roasts, and bit by bit, I'm learning how to bake. I think cooking is a gift to other people.
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Growing up in an atmosphere of storytelling made me an actor.
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I'm a fun father, but not a good father. The hard decisions always went to my wife.
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Every time I see somebody behaving truly insanely in real life, I think, 'Yes! I'm not over the top after all!'
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Academics tend to have wonderfully infantile senses of humor.
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The essence of comedy, drama, and horror is surprise. I have an uncanny ability to surprise people because they look at my face, and they don't know where I'm going.
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It's not always easy to be proud of your government.
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In 1995, I proposed the Harvard Arts Medal. The idea was to celebrate the fact that, although it's rare, Harvard men and women do go into the creative arts. Over the years we've had major, major figures, like Jack Lemmon, John Updike, Yo-Yo Ma, and Bonnie Raitt.
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My eagerness to please sometimes gets the better of me.
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I'm probably a better granddad than dad because your role as a grandfather is to be fun, and I'm fun.
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Good acting is really excellent carpentry.
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'M. Butterfly' is usually the answer to the question, 'What has been your favorite experience?' The reason being, it is an astonishing play.
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There's nothing like spending an evening with an audience every night.
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Britain is probably the most sophisticated combination of a monarchy and a democracy.
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When good things come along, you end up saying yes to them. Because they're rare.
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Whenever I play a role, it's like I've been kidnapped inside my own body.
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When you end a successful sitcom, the most sensible thing to do is go back to the theater.