John Malkovich famous quotes

I probably have more female friends than any man I've ever met. What I like about them is that almost always they're generally mentally tougher, and they're better listeners, and they're more capable of surviving things. And 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.
-- John Malkovich

#Men #House #Quality

And may the best of you - for it will only be the best of you, and even then only in the rarest and briefest moments - succeed in framing that most basic of questions, 'how do we live?'
-- John Malkovich

#May #Succeed #Moments

I am inspired by the appearance of a bohemian of the new millennium.
-- John Malkovich

#Inspired #Appearance #Bohemian

The world is ruled by violence, or at least the imminent threat of violence. It always has been.
-- John Malkovich

#World #Violence #Threat

Scary monsters are like Hula Hoops. They come in and out of fashion.
-- John Malkovich

#Fashion #Scary #Monsters

Some directors expect you to do everything; write, be producer, psychiatrist. Some just want you to die in a tragic accident during the shooting so they can get the insurance.
-- John Malkovich

#Writing #Shooting #Want

Theater is so ephemeral, and I love that.
-- John Malkovich

#Ephemeral #Theater

You can't work in the movies. Movies are all about lighting. Very few filmmakers will concentrate on the story. You get very little rehearsal time, so anything you do onscreen is a kind of speed painting.
-- John Malkovich

#Stories #Rehearsal #Littles

I was a very good baseball and football player, but my father always told me I was much more interested in how I looked playing baseball or football than in actually playing. There's great truth in that.
-- John Malkovich

#Baseball #Football #Father

It's funny - people think analysis or psychiatry is mad, and THEY go to CHURCH...
-- John Malkovich

#Thinking #Mad #People

My father was an exceptionally strong influence on me.
-- John Malkovich

#Strong #Father #Influence

I wasn`t really raised to be the type of person to have doubts.
-- John Malkovich

#Doubt #Type #Raised

I prefer to conduct my life based on how I treat people.
-- John Malkovich

#People #Treats

I don't mind tracksuits. At the track.
-- John Malkovich

#Track #Mind

I don't mind what I play, really.
-- John Malkovich

#Play #Mind

I only have two rules for my newly born daughter: she will dress well and never have sex.
-- John Malkovich

#Daughter #Mother #Sex

When you think of how history is revealed, we know certain things to be facts at certain periods of time, which turn out not to be so factual as time marches on.
-- John Malkovich

#Thinking #Facts #March

Actors generally get to do things you probably shouldn't do in real life - well, at least as much as one might like to or be tempted to. Though I suppose a lot of actors just go ahead and do it, don't they?
-- John Malkovich

#Real #Actors #Might

It's tough to figure out how do we compete in Europe and North America, when obviously a living wage for us is very different than a living wage in Indonesia.
-- John Malkovich

#Europe #America #Different

Sigmund Freud said we act out our own dreams, but if you are only an actor you are not acting out your own dream. You are simply participating in someone else's dream.
-- John Malkovich

#Dream #Acting #Actors

It never occurred to me to be an actor.
-- John Malkovich

#Actors

The most evocative thing to me is probably when a writer and a group of performers can collectively put together something compelling that asks the really simple question: 'How do we live?'
-- John Malkovich

#Simple #Together #Groups

I wouldn't describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that - the ghosts you chase you never catch.
-- John Malkovich

#Confidence #Ghost #Lacking

I don't care what other people think. I don't think it matters.
-- John Malkovich

#Thinking #People #Care

Well, I design costumes because I started with the theater in Chicago, but somehow a few lines just sort of fell to me to do it. And I studied it in school and I always liked it.
-- John Malkovich

#School #Design #Costumes

I don't need to be liked.
-- John Malkovich

#Needs

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

#Process

I don't remember my life before I had children.
-- John Malkovich

#Children #Remember

I've done quite a few big American films.
-- John Malkovich

#Done #Film #Bigs

If you're too smart it can limit you because you spend so much time thinking that you don't do anything.
-- John Malkovich

#Smart #Thinking #Limits

Most films, it doesn't matter if you see them or not.
-- John Malkovich

#Matter #Film

Politics is not really my thing.
-- John Malkovich

Things are so much global and Americanised.
-- John Malkovich

Well, I like to have fun at work.
-- John Malkovich

#Fun #Having Fun #Fun Work

You have to play your characters, not like them.
-- John Malkovich

#Character #Play

You know, I'm really not interested in someone telling me that something's good or bad.
-- John Malkovich

#Not Interested

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.
-- John Malkovich

#Opportunity #Men #Thinking

I'm not a control maniac.
-- John Malkovich

I'm more boring and more conservative.
-- John Malkovich

#Conservative #Boring

I find it hard to pre-plan every element of everything I do. It's not my thing.
-- John Malkovich

#Elements #Plans

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

#People #World #Kind

I like to direct movies, but I don't like to goof around for eight years talking about it.
-- John Malkovich

#Eight #Talking #Years

I like very much to do movies.
-- John Malkovich

I mean, anything that money can be made off will never be a problem to make, no matter what it is.
-- John Malkovich

#Mean #Matter #Problem

I never really did a western western.
-- John Malkovich

#Western

I still have a temper, I suppose.
-- John Malkovich

#Temper #Stills

I was never a fanatical movie person.
-- John Malkovich

#Persons

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

#Wise #Hate #Film

Quite often - a lot of the work I had done had been extensively with women. Most especially in the theater, but also quite often in the movies. That has its own delights, and maybe pitfalls too.
-- John Malkovich

#Pitfalls #Done #Delight

I don't throw things or yell.
-- John Malkovich

I don't lose my temper very often now, and if I do, it's well deserved.
-- John Malkovich

#Temper #Wells

I don't want a trillion-dollar empire to run.
-- John Malkovich

#Running #Dollars #Want

My father was a very contradictory man.
-- John Malkovich

#Father #Men #Contradictory

Nothing you do particularly matters. But I'm not sure that's a great excuse for doing it poorly.
-- John Malkovich

#Matter #Excuse #Not Sure

Of course it's trivial, but then most things are.
-- John Malkovich

#Corny

I don't have a saviour or a royal family.
-- John Malkovich

#Royal #Saviour #Royal Family

I don't wake up drenched in sweat because I haven't been on stage in years.
-- John Malkovich

#Years #Sweat #Wake Up

I haven't physically attacked anyone in a couple of years.
-- John Malkovich

#Couple #Years

I like design, I like details, to me it is just another form of self-expression.
-- John Malkovich

#Self #Expression #Design

I mean, a lot of time rehearsals are taken up with other things other than preparing a character.
-- John Malkovich

#Taken #Character #Mean

I can see how, given a certain degree of sensitivities, proclivities and rage, I could have ended up differently.
-- John Malkovich

#Degrees #Rage #Given

I can have incredible self-discipline. But see, I think it's obviously a form of stupidity.
-- John Malkovich

#Stupid #Thinking #Self

Failure's a natural part of life.
-- John Malkovich

#Natural #Parts Of Life