Hollywood Success Quotes

Well, the way things are going, aside from wheat and auto parts, America's biggest export is now the Oscar.

My brother does a series of movies called 'The Purge,' and they have the third one coming out this year, and then also he'll be starring in the second season of 'Secrets and Lies.' We want each other to win because we are a team, and this is how we've been since day one. That's the end game for all of us in the Hodge house.

When I realized that my big dream was going to come true - 'Night Shift' was a success, 'Splash' was a success, I got the job to do 'Cocoon' - suddenly, I was underway. And I knew my name was rising up the lists. I was going to have a career. I was going to be able to direct movies until I screwed it up.

I would love to be producing movies, acting in more movies, and doing projects that are Oscar-worthy... have kids, be married, all that, being a normal human being as well, balancing it all out.

In a perfect world, my tennis game gets better. I have kids and a beautiful wife and live on some hill somewhere that's not in Los Angeles. And the script that Tom Hanks just barely turned down gets in my hands.

My first year and a half in Hollywood, I did three films. Then in 1959, I was in 'Gidget,' 'Imitation of Life' and 'A Summer Place.' After that, I was a star. It was fun.

Basically, I'm living the life of an actress in L.A. And I've recently had some pretty good fortune.

'Hard Boiled' is my last film in Hong Kong, before I moved to the U.S. It is the one film which is most accepted by the audience in the West.

Before 'The OC,' I was on track to do some great films... and one thing happens, and then I got this mega-stardom all from this show.

I am deeply grateful to the President and to my country. ... To come from Cincinnati, Ohio, for God's sake, then to go to Hollywood, and to get this kind of tribute from my country. ... I love this country so much.

There's hardly any precedent for a guy like me to have the career that I've had. Because I grew up the way I grew up, I'm an in-your-face kind of guy. I developed that as a defense mechanism to survive in the streets. I do that in Hollywood in the service of my passion.

My big break was really Liz Meriwether saw me in a movie called 'Paper Heart' and really liked it, and then saw me in a movie called 'Ceremony' because she knew Max Winkler and said, 'I want you to be in 'No Strings Attached,' but you gotta audition for it.' From that it was easier for her to get me in 'New Girl.'

Everyone has a warped vision of Hollywood and what success in Hollywood is like.

I was a complete unknown when I did 'Karate Kid.' I'd just done a pilot for a TV show called 'Call to Glory.' And I sat down with John Avildsen and brought still pictures from the show. I brought pictures! At that point, I would've been happy to be in a dog-food commercial.

I am not successful, in terms of Hollywood.

My whole family was in 'Into the West' as a pioneer family; they're in the audience in 'The Great Debaters.' My family's been getting a lot of work off me!

After I won the Oscar for 'Pollock,' some newspaper printed, 'She should get a million-dollar bump.' My sisters would write me, 'You're gonna get this million-dollar bump!'

I hate the stereotype of the pitfalls of the child actor. There are so many amazing examples - Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore - of people who have made it through.

Every actor wants to win an Oscar, full stop. It doesn't mean you try to design things around how to accomplish that because that's impossible.

I think there are more Australians making it in Hollywood... we have a fantastic reputation for having a great work ethic.

Most of the successful people in Hollywood are failures as human beings.

The way to be successful in Hollywood is to be as obnoxious as the next guy.

People sometimes forget all the films that we've done. They remember the likes of 'Malcolm X' and 'Do the Right Thing.' But I've been working since 1986. From the beginning, I was determined to not just be a flash in the pan. I've got to keep up with Woody Allen. He's lapping me.

I think [Hollywood] has achieved everything they’ve always dreamed of. The audience now seems to be very dumb. They pay money to watch the same film. Now, you could argue, that's because it makes them feel comfortable. When they go to a movie now, it's almost like hearing a pop song. You know the rhythms, you know when the downbeat is going to come, you know when the explosion is going to come… And so as life becomes more complex, as the economy is in trouble, people cling to what makes them comfortable, so they go again and again to see the same movie.

What came out of 'Ocean's Twelve' is actually great because you do one 'Ocean's Twelve,' and you're more known around the world than if you did 20 years in the French cinema industry.