Explore Quotes by Casey Affleck

If you're a director and someone shows up and asks how I do it, I'd imagine, as a director, you're like, 'Man, I've got a million decisions to make; can you show up with an idea for the scene?'

I feel like there's an obligation - this sounds terribly pretentious - if you're an artist, to share your own experience in a way that's truthful and honest: 'This is what I have to share; this is my life.'

You can start with a great director and great actors and have a great script - and it still just doesn't work. It's kind of a mystery how that happens.

Lots of movies don't kind of work as well as they do on the page.

I think there's a certain amount of pressure depending on how demanding the part is, depending on how great the material is. I feel a certain amount of pressure to rise to the occasion.

Truth is, there's never really been anything so horrible said about me that I haven't either thought of or said to myself.

When you're the younger brother, usually it's not that common that you're having these experiences that your older brother is in awe of.

Part of the criteria for doing a project is that it's scary or challenging because at some point you go, 'It's too scary; it's too challenging. I don't want to do it.' But things that seem easy are never any fun.

I love to think about and therefore talk about why people do what they do. That's kind of why I like being an actor.

I wish I had more control over my career, but making movies is something you do with lots of people.

I sort of fell in love with it when I was in high school doing theater. And so, as sometimes happens when kids - they graduate high school, and people turn to them and say, 'So what are you going to do with your life?' I thought, 'Well, I like being onstage. I like being an actor.'

One thing I don't do anymore is read or pay attention to the critical response, which is a bummer because when I started, and when I was in school, I loved to read old film criticism.

I knew it would be hard work, but that's the reason you're an actor. If you're a bricklayer, you don't want to just show up at someone's house and put a little row of bricks around their garden. You want to build a building.

Sometimes you read something, and there's a part of you that remains in an analytical actor place. Am I going to do this movie? Is this a good part for me? Is it not? Can I bring something to this?

Sometimes I pick parts because I think, 'OK, it scares me,' and that's an indication it's going to be a good movie for me to do. Sometimes that leaves me in a terrible... Well, it doesn't always pan out, you know?

I live in New York full time. I can't live in L.A., because I fear people think I'm a vagrant there. If you show up in L.A. with your shirt inside out or socks mismatched, people start putting change in your cup.

A lot of the times, I end up having to do jobs to sort of pay the bills.

I've done so many movies that are bad, with material that's so shallow, that you instantly scratch the surface, and there's nothing underneath.

The idea of someone not liking me or not liking my movie was always easier to deal with than someone really liking it. I don't know why.

Does celebrity interest anyone? It's definitely not appealing to me. I think anyone who's had any real exposure to it would probably regret ever having even entertained the idea.

I think David Letterman is a genius. Night after night he is funny and smart. He seems to really enjoy his jokes. They seem connected to who he really is. I like watching him, and there is no one better at turning an awkward moment into something very funny.