Philip Seymour Hoffman Quotes

Acting has always been a way for me to express myself, and show all my vulnerabilities and flaws through my characters.

I'm not an emotional person; I keep it in, and I wouldn't know how to get it out if it weren't for acting and writing.

Pain is pain, joy is joy - you can't avoid bringing pieces of yourself into a role.

Music is my way out. I keep things locked up and never say anything. I guess in order to say something to one person, I have to sing it to a couple of thousand. It doesn't make for healthy relationships.

Acting gives you freedom to express your thoughts.

I write about what is getting to me at the time, about the things you need to talk about, but which would sound silly if you sat down and told them to your friend. I only write for myself, to get my emotions out. It's self-therapeutic.

It's fun to play characters in songs. I can just cheat a little bit... be this person for just a small amount of time and just help vent that idea.

I find it hard to talk and say things, but I can always sing about them.

My music is the most 'me' thing about me. Everything is in my music.

When I look at the majority of my own songs they really came from my own sense of personal confusion or need to express some pain or beauty - they were coming from a universal and personal place.

I tend to write it and then let go emotionally.

My work is always more emotional than I am. My characters say things to each other that I get accused of not being able to say to my girlfriend.

For me, poetry was... the fastest way to express what I was feeling, what I was going through.

I love pouring my heart out. People don't want to hear you whine when you're with friends, so you can sing about it instead - it's the best outlet.

Acting is like free therapy! Trying to make people laugh or cry can be inspiring.

I feel what I sing, and I sing what I feel. Really, that's all I can do.

Acting is a form of confession.

Acting has always been a way for me to express the emotions I had buried. If I hadn't acted, I would have gone insane. In my acting class, I could let out my real tears and everyone thought it was the character. But no, it was me.

Singing allowed me to express myself in ways that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

I had feelings that I didn't know what to do with, and I felt better when I started writing them. I thought of it as poetry. I did notice girls really liked it. Better than football. They liked the combination.

You can sometimes get your own feelings across more strongly if you pretend that you're singing it from someone else's angle. But it's always from me. It's just a new way of framing it.

Lyrically, I personally lean towards venting.

I was probably 14 or 15 when I was first on stage at school doing 'Measure for Measure.' I immediately felt it was a great way of expressing oneself at a moment when I didn't think I could express myself, really. I suddenly had access to this range of emotions and thoughts and feelings that were there in me. I was surprised by that.

Me being a shy kid, very closed off, showing vulnerability in a character was sort of a safe space on stage. It's always been in my toolbox, there for me when I need it.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things.