Explore Quotes by John Malkovich

I have at times spoken with my peers and the head of the actors' union about why we're not paid when we appear in, say, a 'TMZ' production, but there seems to be no real interest in combatting it.

I'll never be the biggest kind of star; I'll be like Bob Duvall, respected as an actor but a lot of people can't identify the face. I don't have the personality of a big star, or the looks of a Mel Gibson or a Paul Newman, or the style of a George C. Scott.

I have driven school buses, sold egg rolls and painted houses, and I have often wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn't gone into acting. Mind you, it's a great life, going around pretending you're other people and getting paid ridiculous sums of money for it.

I don't really go through a process, it goes through me.

I don't like things too overstated in the cut or too perfect.

I go around the world, working with all kinds of people who I love.

Politics is not really my thing.

I think I was born at a time when an American male had so many advantages and opportunities that weren't available to men before or after, just a very brief period.

I like very much to do movies.

I just start with a pencil and paper. I don't want something too trendy, too fashion-forward. I don't want to make something I consider a regular person couldn't wear with blue jeans. But I don't want to make something that other people make, either - like a skinny black suit in a shiny material that you can buy anywhere.

If I had spent as much time in the weight room as I did designing football uniforms, I probably would have had a free college education.

I love Chicago, but in a lot of ways it's a disappointment. You can work there for years and years, and because you're in Chicago, you don't get the recognition. It has some of the best theater in the country, but when they shoot a movie there, they bring in all their actors.

Most of the women that I like have a haunted quality - they're sort of like women who live in a haunted house all by themselves.

As an actor there are no drawbacks.

I never really did a western western.

Every country has their problems.

I'm not a control maniac.

I've done quite a few big American films.

I know for a fact that a lot of actors are desperate and unhappy if their careers are not progressing at what they think is the correct rate. They just go crazy if they're not working. I don't feel I'd be that way. You can always get a few people together and put on a play. Maybe not in New York or L.A., but in a lot of other towns, you can.

I admire sensible, kind people. They're not often famous.

I'd hate to see any film I'm involved in fail, especially artistically but also business-wise.