Peter Bogdanovich Quotes

Acting and making music are quite complementary. Acting relies on someone else's writing and direction; writing music or lyrics doesn't. But they are both creative and personal in completely different ways.

It's really fun to go back and forth from acting projects to directing projects. You don't have as much responsibility when you're acting, but you have more fun. But then you miss having that responsibility, and so you go back and torture yourself and make a movie.

I've had some success at writing and directing, and I like it. It's infinitely more creative than just acting, and I have things I want to say and do.

I would love to do a dramatic comedy. All of that, it all interests me. At some point I want to do my 'Monster,' like Charlize Theron, so I'm buckling up for that.

Acting is a whole boatload of fun, but I prefer to do it on my own terms.

I'd rather do a great play than a mediocre play in New York. As much as I'd like to be seen in New York, that's not my driving motivation. My motivation is to play great roles, wherever they happen.

I'd be lying if I said Hollywood wasn't still an ambition; it's everyone's, isn't it? You're getting paid very well, you're working with great actors and great directors - who wouldn't want to be a part of that? But it's not going to break my heart if it doesn't happen. This business is about doing good work rather than how famous it makes you.

That's how I like to do it with actors, have them really go for it and I'll tell them when it's too much. It's always easier to bring it back then to push it further.

I have the most fun writing and directing. And I always choose myself as the lead actor.

I'm a little less hungry as an actor than I used to be. When you're a director, you're the conductor of the orchestra, and when you're an actor, you're playing the violin. There's a thrill to each of them, but as the conductor, you get the fuller sound.

No one ever said movies are for developing your range. Hardly anyone gets that opportunity. Which is why I think the stage is so good. It's less bread, but you can play different types, and you can initiate your own projects.

I wanted to express myself more fully through writing and directing. It just feels like a package deal. Anytime you create anything, you try to exert mastery over your world.

I don't believe that artists really are interested in money. That's not the motivation for art.

I am very picky with my career. I don't need to do it for the money or the fame. I'm very choosy, which is why I haven't played the typical role that people expect to see from someone of my stature and size, as the mean jock or the preppy. It's very easy to see me like that. That's why I go against it in different roles.

For me, to be perfectly honest, the part of my brain that was stimulated by directing was much more exciting than a typical day of acting.

I like acting for myself as a director. I act and I know that I'll have a chance to have some say in what gets used and that I'll be able to give myself enough takes and be on the same page as myself about how the scene should play.

The acting is something that will always be a part of my life, but the writing gives me a lot more creative freedom. You're a pawn in somebody else's chess game, whereas as a writer and as a director, you get to call the shots. And that's very thrilling.

What is the art world? I never really understood. I started doing this stuff to do what I want to do. Not to be this or that.

I would like any type of character that I could be creative with and totally delve into.

I do like the idea of being an auteur in the sense of writing and being in your own stuff.

I'm going to end up making twenty films if people let me.

My idea of an actor is to be different persons with different roles. Every time a script interests me, I look for interesting characters because I intend to completely transport myself into it. This happens only because I am a very greedy actor. I am not part of the rat race because I am living a dream.

After I did Untamed Heart I wanted to do a film that was outrageous. I really wanted to do, you know, a performance. I don't want to allow my image to rule the choices that I make.

I have to be able to be the artist that I am.

My advice is if you have to do music, then do it! There's no choice in your heart and your soul - unless you have that kind of great need, desire and determination, it's pretty tough out there!